


Reflections That Flicker

by viksherenqueer



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Cecil Might be Human or Inhuman, Hurt/Comfort, Kevin Might be Human or Inhuman, Mild Blood, Multi, Native American Cecil, Possibly Unrequited Love, Re-Education, Self-Mutilation, Typical Night Vale Violence, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, in the sense of like ceremonial blood sacrifice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5276423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viksherenqueer/pseuds/viksherenqueer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simone Rigadeau, the transient living in the Earth Sciences building at the Night Vale community college, has sworn for years she is living split realities. Earl Harlan, chef and scout master, was not only nineteen for centuries, but has recently returned from another dimension with dozens of questions about his past and a child who looks exactly like him. Kevin, the Voice of Desert Bluffs, brings his home with him everywhere he goes because it's the only one he's ever had. Cecil Palmer, the Voice of Night Vale, is deeply connected with the rift of time in a way he is entirely unaware of. Coincidentally, all of these things are related on a level none of them ever imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cracking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its about time i put all of my theories into a fic. this isn't going to be entirely sad. there will be happy times. and bittersweet times. and sad times. also some weird times because honestly it's night vale.

Night Vale was a particularly awful place to live. Anyone who was not delirious and hadn't succumbed to the towns strangeness would agree. Fortunately for the town itself, those people were few and far between. Cecil Palmer, the Voice of Night Vale, was not one of those people. He steadfastly implied that Night Vale was nothing less than great.

But it wasn't. It wasn't great. Sometimes it was downright dreadful, and Cecil Palmer knew this. But it was his job not to know this, and despite personal opinion, he was very good at his job. 

Cecil Palmer, in his current state of undeniable fear and anguish, wanted to leave the station. He wanted to crawl his way outside to the dry, warm air and suck in sandy breaths against the concrete and he wanted to feel safe again. But, this was not going to happen considering the present situation. Station Management was very unhappy, and Cecil wasn't entirely sure why. He believed an intern had upset them, but Cecil didn't have the heart to be angry with said intern. What was left of said intern, anyway. To the friends and family of intern Dahlia...

Cecil let out a little bit of a hiss as he trailed the blade, inscripted with sigils that were probably older than the concept of time itself, along his forearm. It drew blood. Red blood, bubbling to the surface, tipping over, and running down his skin. Cecil knelt down, letting out a quiet, "I beg for your forgiveness," to Station Management behind their door. The air around him was filled with what appeared to be thick smoke, but tasted more like salty water vapor to Cecil. He was entirely convinced breathing it in was a bad idea. He swiped his fingers through the blood, and in turn began rubbing a bit of bodily fluid on the bloodstone circle around him. He touched the stones in a careful order; a pattern he had memorized long ago during his early days at the station. 

As the incantation continued, the smoke around Cecil began to clear up, seeming to be sucked in at the edges of the doorframe. Tendrils waved wildy behind frosted glass, but Cecil was not looking up. His gaze was set directly on the stones around him as he carefully touched the last few, reciting the final words. And then, the office was clear. The feeling of dread, seated deep in the pit of Cecil's stomach, had dissipated like mist. 

He finally looked around, and well, nobody was there. Besides the body (what was left of it) of the intern who had filed the papers they slipped under managements door incorrectly. This, to Cecil, was quite annoying. Station Management threw a fit and he was left totally alone to solve it. It's like he had to do _everything_ around here. He huffed, grabbing the old, yet well conditioned pouch he kept his bloodstones in, and began carefully removing them one at a time from their circle. He'd clean up the blood later. His arm was making a mess of everything, and he needed to take care of it first.

"Hey!" He called out, hoping someone would respond as he clutched the bloody pouch in his hand and began his way towards the mens restroom. "I need help!" He called out again, pushing past the door. He bypassed Khoshhekh, heading right for the sink. He shoved the bloodstones into his back pocket, and began running lukewarm water over the bloody mess that was his arm.

After a moment, another intern, Kellan? Cecil thought it was Kellan, entered the restroom. "Oh uh, Mr. P., do you need some help?"

_No_ , Cecil thought to himself, _I yelled that for fun_. He finally nodded, keeping his sarcastic quips to himself. "Yeah, I need someone to help me bandage this," he admitted, letting the blood continue to run over the white porcelain, swirling down the little drain.

Khoshekh meowed loudly, tail whipping back and forth. 

"It's okay, my sweetest boy," Cecil cooed to the cat softly, as intern Kellan began disinfecting the wound. Cecil didn't flinch, just sort of trying to patiently wait it out. After a few long minutes his arm was wrapped up in bandages and he was back down the hall. He made his way back into his studio, sighing and glancing towards his desk, where his bag's contents were spilt just about everywhere on the floor. Cecil had panicked a bit in his search for his bloodstones earlier.

He took to cleaning up the mess, returning things to his bag. His hair brush, phone, lotion, chapstick, ceremonial dagger, illegal writing utensils, and the bloodstones from his back pocket all made their way back inside the canvas orange messenger bag that he dragged around with him just about everywhere. He set the bag up on the ground, leaning against his desk and sat down. 

His studio was, well, a little cramped. His desk and the soundboard his microphone was connected to met in a corner, only separated by a tall lamp. The wall in front of Cecil's desk was mostly taken up by the large glass window, that let Cecil peek into the producers booth. To the left of this window was the door that led into the studio, and an 'ON AIR' sign. Behind Cecil was a couch, plush and colored a deep boysenberry. It was covered in furry throw pillows, and next to that, two tall metal filing cabinets that kept endless notices and calendars and cassettes and CDs. Scattered about the room were a couple paintings as well, such as an older oil painting of a cat resting atop of pile of teeth. But, the cherry on top, was the sheer fact that every spot in the little studio that could hold a picture frame was covered. Photos of Cecil with Carlos, of Cecil at parties and events, of Cecil with Janice or Earl or Abby. Cecil had dismayed over the lack of room for new photos, considering putting in another table against the far wall just for that purpose. Cecil couldn't remember a time before now when he had enough family photos that he needed extra space for them, honestly. It left a warm feeling in his gut when he thought about it.

He began shuffling the papers on his desk, straightening them out and glancing out the window to his right. The traffic outside was bumper to bumper, which was odd considering it wasn't quite rush hour. Cecil picked up the landline on his desk, typing the extension in for the receptionist. After a long moment of ringing, Lance answered the phone. "Hey," Cecil started, looking out the window, brows knit together. "What's going on out there?"

Lance was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure," he admitted, peering out the stations front windows at the traffic. "Probably an accident?"

"Shouldn't an intern go check on that?" Cecil inquired, having gotten up to stand closer to his window, the phone cord being stretched a bit.

"Well uh, we're understaffed since Dahlia died earlier," Lance sighed, before glancing around. "Kellan!" He called, having moved the phone down against his neck so he wouldn't hurt Cecil's ear. "Kellan!! Cecil wants you to go check out what's causing the traffic!" He huffed, moving to take a seat behind his large desk. "I'm going to have to call in the next few interns at broadcast time so they show up tomorrow. Kellan is the only one we have here, currently."

"What about Yasmine? They were just here this morning." Cecil made a face, watching several people begin exiting their cars. Some started forward to see what was holding up traffic, but some of them looked wary, staying behind as their loved ones started down the street. "I sent them to get a statement from Hart after lunch." Cecil knew his show was going to start soon. The sunshine had faded some since noon, leaving the sky a dull taupe color. 

"You sent them to do what?" Lance choked a bit on his words, voice raising an octave before he huffed and rubbed his face. "Sir, you do know that Yasmine runs a blog in their spare time..."

"Oh." Cecil mouthed the word, lips remaining in an 'o' shape for a long moment before his features went slack. "Well, no. They never told me that." He huffed loudly. Okay, Yasmine and Dahlia. Gotta tell their parents. "The show starts soon. I'll let Kellan know to text me what's happening." Cecil hung up on Lance, moving to settle down in his seat. He adjusted his microphone on his desk, and carefully tied his long hair back into a ponytail before he put his headset on. He organized the papers in front of him, taking a deep breath and rereading over his loose script. It was more of an outline to direct the flow of the broadcast, but it kept him focused.

It was a long ten minutes before his producer showed up in their booth. Cecil met eyes with the gentlemen who sat on the other side of the glass, and he gave Cecil a little wave. He put on his own headset, which had a small mouthpiece connected to it. He clicked the side of it, asking a quiet _can you hear me?_

Cecil nodded, and moved to turn on his own microphone. "Testing, testing. One, two, three, four." It was mundane, but the usual pre-broadcast ritual. They had to make sure everything was working correctly. Cecil would not make the mistake of getting on air and nobody being able to hear him. His own feedback sounded good as he continued reciting the same things he said into the microphone every day. Finally his producer gave him a thumbs up. "Thanks Marc," Cecil said, before turning off the microphone and resituating himself so he was sure he was comfortable. 

"Cecil," his producer spoke to him after another few minutes, giving him a wave. Cecil nodded at this, turning on his microphone and waiting for the audio signal. "We're on air," his producer finally said, his voice coming through Cecil's headset.

"The world is cracking apart at the seams. Life as we know it ended decades ago. Life as we know it goes on. Welcome to Night Vale." Cecil backed away from the microphone as he heard the intro music begin to play in his headphones. His phone buzzed in his bag several times, and he made a face, before quietly leaning down to pull it out. "Hello listeners," he said as the music ended, reading his screen. It was Kellan, so he unlocked his phone but did not read the messages yet. "I am just going to dive right into it. Outside my studio window I can see the streets full of cars, packed together tightly like sardines in a tin. I sent intern Kellan down there to check it out, and he is texting me from the scene." This is when Cecil turned his attention to the phone.

[Mr P, there was some sort of nasty accident]  
[People are saying someone was drunk maybe. Or fell asleep at the wheel]  
[Four cars. Something red and sportsy. A Dodge, I think. An SUV, black. Small car, Ford, old, tan. Minivan, totally wrecked beyond recognition, dark green]

Cecil read these texts as quickly as possible, converting his thoughts into words. "Right down the street from our little station, there seems to have been some sort of car accident. I'm receiving word it involved four vehicles, but no news yet whether or not anyone is severely injured. More of this story as it develops." Cecil did not mention that he knew people that owned cars that fit these descriptions. He knew everybody, anyway.

Cecil kept his phone on his thigh so he would feel it buzz, as he shuffled through this weeks community calender. "And now, the community calender."

"Monday: We will all continue on with our days, despite the fact that we will all hear screaming. When we look around us, nobody will be screaming, but we will all hear it. "

[There's ambulances everywhere Mr. P. Lot of blood too]

"Tuesday: The screaming is gone. There's also a PTA meeting that night, so no Steve, we do not want scones dryer than a mouthful of sand. Please stop trying."

[The girl in the Dodge, college kid, she fell asleep they think. She's dead]

"Wednesday: Stop thinking about Wednesday. Stop it right now. You know what happens if you think about Wednesday. You know what they will do to you."

[Looks like the Dodge was going too fast. She might have fallen asleep. It t-boned the green minivan on the drivers side. Man was driving, kid in backseat. Man was alive but he is unresponsive now. They can't get him or the child out of the car. This car looks more like a pretzel]

"Thusday: All of the trees in Night Vale will be taking a vacation on Thursday. This, of course, will mean that the nice free Wi-Fi they provide us all the time will be absent until they return. Trees work very hard every single day, so they deserve some time off! I'm not quite sure where they are going, but I hope they have fun!"

[SUV was coming up behind green minivan, couldn't stop in time. Slammed into the back of it, spun some, collided with the Dodge. No word on the driver]

"Friday: We will all be angry at how fast our data is being used up, considering we no longer have trees to give us free Wi-Fi. We will all remind ourselves the trees deserve a break too, but deep down, we are still bitter."

[Tan car was coming opposite way. Like it was coming from the stations direction. It tried to swerve right, its back end collided with part of the Dodge. Driver is completely fine. Got out of the car afterwards. I will try to get a statement]

"Saturday: The tarantulas of Night Vale will be having a bake sale. They will form huge webs in Mission Grove park, where people can exchange money for baked goods. Be careful for small children can easily get tangled in the webs. Please do not wear bug spray. It offends the spiders."

[Simone Rigadeau was in the tan car. She's hysterical. "The world ended decades ago! This car accident does not even matter! It has only happened in this reality!" She is screaming now. One of the EMTs is trying to calm her down]

"Sunday: Wow, Sunday is looking like a mighty fine day for a barbeque or some sort of family outing. If you have family dear listeners, Sunday would be a great day to get them together for some outdoor activities!"

[Guy in the van is dead. They got the kid out. The kid is bloody but not badly injured. He looks maybe eight. He is not crying. He is just staring]  
[Simone is running away. Probably back to the college]  
[She's screaming something]  
[It sounds like "this reality will be changed as well" but I'm not sure]  
[The kid won't speak to the police and I don't recognize him. His face is too bloody. White kid. Red hair? Maybe]

"Listeners," Cecil began again, just rephrasing the information as it was given to him. "It seems a college student who we do not know the name of was driving along Marvin Drive when she fell asleep. When she came to the three way intersection just down from the station, she was speeding and caused a side collision with a green minivan. A man and a child were inside. The man from what reports are telling me did not survive, but the child is alive. Two others cars were mixed up in the crash as well. No word on whoever was in the SUV, but the driver of a tan Ford, Simone Rigadeau, the transient who lives in the Earth Sciences building down at the community college, survived without much harm. My reports are telling me she is emotionally distressed..." His words trailed off, reading the last text he received again. He had been silent for a whole twenty seconds before Marc was in his headset asking what was up. 

"I um, listeners I," Cecil suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He knew who was in that car. "I take you to this sponsered ad." He said suddenly, looking up to Marc with desperate eyes.

Marc was surprised but moved quickly to play the recording of the ad's they had prerecorded earlier that day. "Cecil, what's up?" He spoke softly into his headset.

"I---" Cecil choked a bit, shaking his head and pulling his headset off. He called Kellan, hands quivering as the phone rung.

"Hey Mr. P., aren't you on air?" Kellan sounded surprised to get the call, before wondering if he was suddenly on air as well.

"What does the kid look like?" Cecil has to force himself to keep his tone even, despite the fact this his insides were tearing themselves apart.

"Oh uh, short. Pale kid. I can't really tell much with all the blood in the wa--"

"Are there stickers on the car?"

"What?"

Cecil had to take a moment to tell himself that screaming at Kellan would not get him any closer to the information he was seeking. "Look at the fuckin---" He cut off, voice cracking. This was not working. "Kellan, the back of the car, stickers."

"Oh uh, one sec," Kellan sounded utterly and entirely confused. But Cecil could hear the yelling in the background, the sirens, and a lot of chatter. "Yeah, there's a lot of uh, boy scout related stickers and stuff on the back--- Woah Mr. P. Are you okay?" Kellan cut off at the sound Cecil had made. 

Cecil didn't even answer, just sort of letting the phone slide out of his hand, landing on his thigh and gliding off the fabric of his pants to the floor where it landed face down. Kellan's voice could still be heard, small and quiet, if Cecil was even trying to listen. Which he wasn't.

"Cecil, you're back on air!" Marc's voice called through the headset that was abandoned on the desk. Cecil wasn't listening. Cecil's face was buried deep in his hands, each and every molecule of him fighting his very existence.

"Oh god," Cecil choked on the words, his voice tiny and high. "Oh no no no nononononono noooooo." He couldn't breathe. Every part of him felt like it was coming undone. "Oh noooo no no oh fuck." 

"Cecil! Hey! What _happened_?" Marc's voice was calling through the headset.

"Mr. P.! Hey! Are you alright?? Do you know who was in that car?" Kellan's voice could be heard from the cell phone on the ground. 

Cecil finally chanced a glance up through his hands to look at his producer. He was met with his own gaze, though. The window to the producers booth was gone, replaced by a mirror. Purple eyes met purple, going wide for a long moment. That's when the static started, specking at the edge of Cecil's vision. And it was so loud in his ears. Deafening, really. His reflection flickered in his line of sight, and it made his heart pound fast in his chest. He gripped the desk, pushing back from it hard. Instead of sliding his chair away like intended, it tumbled back, sending Cecil onto the ground. "Fuck, no, fuck oh god," he choked on his own panicked words. 

Everything was flickering. The entire world around him was seeming to fade in and out of existence and Cecil wasn't sure how to fight it. He was talking. He could feel his lips moving, the simple mechanic of making noise, but all he could hear was white noise. LIke a television programmed incorrectly.

Cecil's own hands were no longer static, fraying around the edges. It wasn't as bad as the other objects in the room, which were disappearing. He felt foreign hands on him, but he could see no one. He kicked. He screamed. 

"The world is cracking apart at the seams. Life as we know it ended decades ago. Life as we know it goes on." The words echoed inside of his head, distant, surreal, like they were a million lightyears away. It was so hard to make them out above the sound of friction in his ears. He felt like the noise was successfully drumming on his skull to the point it would crack open and split apart. "Welcome to Night Vale." The words echoed louder, and Cecil desperately clutched his palms over his ears in an attempt to drown out the blaringly loud noise.

Suddenly it was gone.

Cecil paused, sat upright in his seat, Marc staring at him questioningly from the producers booth. His headset was on, eyes lacking tears. phone unlocked in his lap. Cecil looked down, and for a long moment, was entirely lost.

The sound of an ad playing in his ears startled him, and he glanced up at Marc.

"Are you okay?" Marc's voice called through the headset, and Cecil took a long moment to comprehend his words. Despite the fact that the headset fed sound directly into his ears, it sounded miles away. He pulled the headphones off, feeling a small rush of warm blood run down his neck. He pulled the headset back, inspecting the red smeared on the small circular cushions of his headphones, before touching his ears. "Holy fuck," Marc's voice said after a moment, looking bewildered. "Okay I'll just, keep playing ads." Cecil couldn't hear him.

Cecil felt well, unnerved. He wasn't even sure why. Well okay, his ears were bleeding, but that was it. It wasn't the first time his ears had randomly started bleeding. But he couldn't understand what made him feel so unreal. He tried to relocate his thoughts. Kellan had left to examine an accident. They started the show. Kellan was texting him. He looked to his phone, rereading through all the texts there.

[Mr P, there was some sort of accident]  
[People are saying someone was drunk maybe. Or fell asleep at the wheel]  
[Four cars. Something red and sportsy. A Dodge, I think. An SUV, black. Small car, Ford, old, tan. Minivan, dark green]  
[There's ambulances everywhere Mr. P. Lot of blood too]  
[The girl in the Dodge, college kid, she fell asleep they think. They have her in the ambulance now. She's alive, but barely]  
[Looks like the Dodge was going really fast. She probably fell asleep on the road. Made the minivan swerve into a telephone pole. Man was driving, kid in backseat. Man is alive, but he's unresponsive now. The child won't talk to them or tell them his name]  
[SUV was coming up behind the minivan, swerved when it did, but t-boned the Dodge. No word on the driver]  
[Tan car was coming opposite way. Like it was coming from the stations direction. It tried to swerve right, its back end collided with part of the Dodge. Driver is completely fine. Got out of the car afterwards. I will try to get a statement]  
[Simone Rigadeau was in the tan car. She's hysterical. "The world ended decades ago! This car accident does not even matter! It has only happened in this reality!" She is screaming now. One of the EMTs is trying to calm her down]  
[Guy in the van hit his head. They're putting him in the ambulance now. ID says his name is Earl Harlan. Isn't that your friend? Sorry. EMT says he'll be fine though]  
[His kid is being weird. Really silent. Just staring at everything. Someone told him his dad would be okay and he just sort of stared at them]  
[Simone is running away. Probably back to the college.]  
[She's screaming something]  
[It sounds like "I told you this would happen! This always happens!" but I'm not sure]  
[The kid seems okay. Just a little bloody from broken glass. They are going to let him ride in the ambulance with his dad]  
[The SUV driver is alive, too. Haven't heard a name, but they put them on a stretcher and into an ambulance]  
[I think everyone lucked out, honestly]  
[This could have been so much worse]

Cecil paused for a moment, taking a moment to process all of that. Earl would be okay, he told himself. Roger was alright, as well. And honestly, Kellan was right.

It could have been _so_ much worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter isnt completely sad bc khoshekh was in it


	2. Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earl remembers his past. Well, not really. He's _really_ trying though.

Earl Harlan is forty years old. He is like a lot of people in that aspect. Earl Harlan has a child. He is like a lot of people in that aspect as well. Earl Harlan, unlike most people, was never thirty-nine. Earl Harlan, unlike some people, does not remember how he obtained his child. 

This does not make Earl Harlan a bad man. He wants to remember what his life was like, but he just can't. Earl Harlan remembers being young. He remembers his parents. He remembers being happy. He remembers Lee Marvin. He remembers Night Vale. He remembers Cecil. And then, it's all fuzzy. He was in love with Cecil. If he was being entirely honest with himself, he was _still_ in love with Cecil. 

But that wasn't the issue here. The issue is Cecil Palmer is the only person in this world who could possibly help him remember the things he has forgotten, but Cecil seemed almost dead-set against it. Earl in some aspects couldn't really blame Cecil for not wanting to remember. People forgot things for one of two reasons. The first being that they weren't allowed to know them in the first place. And the second, that they wanted to forget.

Earl Harlan vaguely remembers graduation. He was nineteen, and their class hadn't been large, but they were still happy for it to be over with anyway. His mother was very old at this point. When he was fifteen his mother had been middle aged. At the time of graduation, she was greying. His father had already passed. This was something that made no sense to Earl, other than the fact that he seemed to be ageing at the same rate as Cecil. Which was much slower than most of the people around them.

At the time, Earl hadn't really been sure how to process that. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure he had thought that much about it. He assumes now that that's what happens when you're a teenager with other things on your mind.

Back to graduation, Earl remembered being there. He didn't remember the year, or anything that could really hint at the year. He couldn't remember what their clothes had looked like, or what their school looked like. All he could remember was Cecil, a lot of orange milk, and a bon fire. 

Earl Harlan was not currently graduating. He was not currently laying out in the desert drinking orange milk while a couple other teens danced around a fire. Cecil Palmer, who had been drinking a little more than just orange milk that night, was not currently suckling wet kisses on his neck. 

What was happening, was, well. Earl wasn't sure. There was some beeping. And his head really hurt. He could vaguely make out distant voices, and occasionally something touched him. But that's about as much of his life as he was currently able to process.

Instead of processing that (which is a thing he couldn't do anyway), Earl tried to process the rest of his life. After graduation, Cecil had gone to college. Earl had wanted to go to college, but he didn't. He isn't sure why he didn't. He didn't do much of anything. He didn't turn twenty. He didn't go to college. He didn't keep up with Cecil Palmer, as much as he wanted to. He was, well, stuck. He wasn't sure how he got stuck, or what made him stuck, but that's exactly what he was. So he became a scout master, because that's what the prophecy told him to do. He taught kids how to tie knots, how to survive in the desert, how to distract wild librarians if they ever had to, how to start fires, and how to avoid existential dread. Y'know, all the standard stuff. And he did that for, well, centuries. People constantly came and went. Boy scouts advanced through ranks, growing older, and eventually leaving the scouts as capable young men. Earl was still nineteen. He was _always_ nineteen. Unmoving, both physically and emotionally. He couldn't advance past this point in his life, no matter how hard he tried. Cecil didn't talk to him anymore, and Earl was still in love with him. Cecil went off to Europe, and Earl was still in love with him. Cecil continued to live his life without Earl, and Earl tried to do the same. He tried to change. He tried to just be twenty. He tried to get over Cecil. Neither of these things happened. Earl Harlan never could get over the fact that they could've had something. Earl Harlan couldn't stop being nineteen.

Then that day happened. Two of his scouts, Franklin and Barton, had earned the rank of Eternal Scout. Nobody had ever done this before, and Earl Harlan was as proud as he was terrified. Which was a lot. And it was confusing. And he was still nineteen. 

It was the first time he had dared speak to Cecil in many, many years. And he was nineteen. (This was an excuse at this point. He was nineteen and at least a little bitter). He told Cecil that they could've really had something. Always remember that. It was sort of over dramatic and stupid, and Earl regretted the embarrassing slip dearly when he was old enough to process how immature it was. But to be fair, he had been stuck at nineteen, in the same emotional state for hundreds of years, literally incapable of getting over Cecil. More excuses, but dammit, Earl was going to continue feeding them to himself. It's all he had left. 

At the ceremony, Earl had been grabbed by quite a few mute children, and dragged off into a tent behind The Ralph's. These children seemed to come from another dimension, and like most things, Earl Harlan does not remember what happened there.

Until one day he was suddenly back. Like time had reset itself. Despite the full knowledge of everyone in town knowing he was a scout master, the prophecy that never changes suddenly told him he was a cook. And he had a job as a chef. And he had this child, who at this point he did not know the name of. It's Roger. His name is Roger. Roger is quiet, very quiet. Sometimes Earl has nightmares. Roger reminds him of the creepy mute children. This makes Earl feel awful about himself as a parent. Sometimes Earl forgets he is a parent. This also makes him feel awful.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Earl Harlan's emotional state was not that of a nineteen year old lost in love and not sure what to do with his life. Now, he was a forty year old lost in love and not sure what he _did_ with his life. 

He enjoyed cooking, at least. It provided a nice distraction, and Earl was good with his hands. Plus cooking was a necessary part of everyday life, so it was a good skill to have. He had more recently been reached out to by Abby Carlsberg, Cecil's sister. She had told him Steve would be willing to watch Janice and Roger after school together, since they got along well and Earl worked late most nights. Earl had resisted at first, but Roger seemed to like Janice a lot and Steve was harmless enough. So eventually he gave in. Janice didn't make fun of Roger, and that was important.

He saw more of Cecil nowadays as well. Which was odd. Earl knew he wasn't a puppy head over heels in love anymore, but being around Cecil did sort of yank at his heart strings in a way that definitely spelt out he wasn't over the other. And he knew that his feelings must be obvious. Carlos, the few times they had met, had given Earl a lot of sympathetic looks. A lot of glances that said things like 'as a scientist I am very observant and I understand that you are in love with my boyfriend and well, that kinda sucks, sorry dude'. Or something like that, probably. Scientists did not communicate directly, and it was confusing. 

Despite this, it was nice. He had had a dinner party recently, and he had invited Cecil and Carlos, along with Abby, Steve, and Janice. He even invited some of his coworkers, and they had a nice long meal together. Cecil and Steve bickered, and Roger smiled more than Earl had ever seen him do before. Janice beat Carlos at chess. Twice. And Abby told embarrassing stories about her little brother, much to Cecil's displeasure, and well, it was fantastic. It wasn't exactly how Earl Harlan had expected his life to go, but for that night, everything seemed almost perfect.

Except perfection doesn't exist. And that night, he was left with countless questions he didn't have answers to. Why was he nineteen for all those years? Why did he come back and suddenly have a child? How did the prophecy change? How did any of this happen? Earl Harlan was entirely stumped. 

And he wasn't sure how to change this. Or if he even could. In finding his answers, would other people find answers they didn't want? Just how deep did this go?

Augh, Earl thought to himself as he reached up to rubbed his head. It hurt so bad. And it was wrapped in... Something? Earl finally cracked an eye open, and instantly regretted it. The lights overhead were blaring. 

"Ask your doctor what is wrong with them. Ask it accusingly. Catch them off guard. Look them in the eyes and demand to know what it is they are doing wrong. We want to find out. Scream the words. Scream: what is wrong with you?"

The loud voice hurt Earl's ears, but it was not alone either.

"He was just really lucky, if we're being honest. The police said if he hadn't swerved like he did that girl would've slammed right into the side of his car and probably killed him." It was a foreign voice. One Earl didn't recognize.

"God," this one he knew. Definitely Cecil. "I just... I am so happy that Roger and him are both alright. The second I read my interns texts I was just... Panicked for the rest of the show. As soon as I was off air I called Carlos and just... Headed over here. Do... Do you think he'll wake up soon?"

"Well, he's only been out for about two hours. So he could wake up... Now!" The voice said, and Earl could feel eyes on him for a long moment. "Damn, I really hoped he'd like, spring awake."

Cecil chuckled, and it was a beautiful sound, even if it was a little forced. "Mm," Earl finally began moving a bit, testing his eyes against the light again. It was blinding, but his eyes adjusted after a long moment.

"Oh hey, I was right," the nurse said, grinning and heading over. Earl watched them for a moment, blinking a few times in confusion. "Hi Mr. Harlan," they said, checking his machines for a moment. "Do you know what happened?"

Earl paused for a moment, trying to digest that. What did he remember? It was Sunday, and he was not working. Roger and him had gone camping the previous day, and were on their way home from a trip out in the desert. And well, that's it. "Not really." He finally admitted.

"You were in a car accident," the nurse explained, having to pause in her words as the loudspeaker above said _ask your doctor if they read books. Ask them why they do that. Tell them the books are the reason that special person never stuck around_. "You and your son are both alright, though. He mostly got some scrapes and bruises. Didn't even need any stitches. You on the other hand experienced some head trauma, but the doctor said it shouldn't be too bad. You'll probably have some problems with headaches for a little while, though." 

"Oh," Earl finally managed, going quiet. He glanced up, but the nurse was suddenly gone. He looked around the room, and she was no where to be found. 

"Hey," Cecil finally said, getting up and dragging his chair all the way over and sitting right next to the bed. He reached up, touching Earl's hand gently. "How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts," Earl managed, which was the obvious thing to say but it was true. "Where's Roger?"

"In the lobby with Carlos. Carlos is better at sign language than I am so he's been trying to teach some to Roger since he won't talk to anyone." Cecil shrugged, smiling a bit fondly at the idea of his boyfriend teaching this child sign language.

"That's... Actually a really good idea..." Earl admitted, deciding he might have to try that out sometime. Roger was not one to speak much. He would if he had to, but Earl didn't think he preferred it.

"Yeah... Hey, they want to keep you hear overnight to make sure your head is okay." Cecil said after a moment, patting the back of Earl's hand before sliding his hand back into his own lap. Earl missed the contact immediately. "Roger is alright, and they have no reason to keep him, so he is more than welcome to stay the night with Carlos and I. It'll be fun. We'll pump him full of soda and junk food so when we return him to you he's nothing less than a handful."

Earl tried to laugh at this, but winced and regretted it. Okay, laughing when his head hurt this bad was not a good idea. "Yeah, okay. Just. I want to see him first."

"Of course," Cecil said, nodding a few times. "I can go get him now. It's past dinner time so Carlos and I will probably pick something up to eat. He can't have gluten, right?"

"Yeah, no gluten. Same as me." Earl nodded, sighing a bit. The whole wheat-ban had made avoiding gluten easier, but it was still around. "Also just... He might wander out of your house in the middle of the night."

"I can get up and check from time to time," Cecil offered, shrugging. "I don't have to be at work early so it'll be okay. Carlos, only metaphorically, is a rock when he sleeps. I swear I could dump some water on that man's head and he would not wake up. But yet somehow, every morning, he wakes up at 5:30 on the dot. I envy his sleeping skills." 

"Are you having trouble sleeping?" Earl suddenly inquired, and Cecil looked a little displaced for a moment. Confused by the serious tone the conversation had suddenly taken.

"Well... I've never really slept well, Earl. Light sleeper. And Night Vale is loud. Luckily Carlos doesn't really snore, so that makes it easier but... I will admit I do toss and turn quite a lot." Cecil shrugged, closing his eyes for a moment. "I think the sheer amount of caffeine in my system at all times keeps me in tip-top shape, though!" He opened his eyes, grinning. Earl thought he was beautiful. He only thought this, and did not say it. He knew he shouldn't say things like that.

"I should go get Roger," Cecil finally said after a moment of silence. He got up and left the room quietly. Earl watched him go. Earl felt both relief and sadness over Cecil leaving, and both emotions made him feel equally guilty. 

After a moment the door opened, and Roger came through first. His hair was a mess, with a bandage wrapped around his head. From what Earl could tell he was mostly covered in bandaids. He looked up at Earl, and gave a small wave. He paused, and only moved once a quiet discúlpeme could be heard behind him. Roger finally came over, crawling up into the chair that Cecil was previously sitting in next to the bed.

"Hey buddy," Earl said softly, giving his son a smile. Roger simply gave another small wave. Earl glanced up and watched a man enter the room. This man was very handsome, and wore a labcoat. He wasn't the tallest man, but his shiny thick hair and strikingly straight teeth certainly made up for those few inches. "Hey Carlos."

"Hey Earl," Carlos beamed, waving as well and heading over to touch the footboard by Earl's feet. "Ceec ran to get something for us to drink. I've been teaching lil' Roger here some sign language. It's not really my field of study, but I know enough to get by."

"Well," Earl said, glancing to Roger. "I know a little as well. Can you show me what you learned?" Earl tried to sit up some more, but he was so sore. He managed though, after some wiggling and concerned looks from Carlos.

Roger watched his father, just sort of quietly waiting for him to get situated. When his father finally looked at him, he moved to sign 'hi' and 'my name is Roger'. Carlos said aloud what Roger was signing, even though Earl already knew. 

"That's so great." Earl commented, smiling and nodding a bit. "Do you... Do you prefer to speak this way?"

Roger blinked for a moment like he was trying to process that, before finally nodding. "Yeah," he replied, voice very quiet.

Earl nodded a bit. "Alright, well we can definitely look into learning it together." Earl had no idea how he was going to manage this on top of work, but he was definitely going to try. And if push came to shove, maybe Janice would considering helping Roger learn it along with her and Earl could stay up late most nights trying to play catch-up. 

Cecil returned, handing a bottle of water to Carlos and a bottle of chocolate milk to Roger. He read his own soda bottle after a moment. "Share a Coke with the unavoidable feeling of dread deep within your heart." He chuckled, cracking the cap open and letting the fizz die down for a moment before moving to take a sip. "So, Roger, is there anyplace in particular you want to get dinner from? Your daddy said you can stay the night at Carlos' and I's place. It'll be lots of fun. We can watch lots of movies and eat candy." 

Earl grinned a bit at the idea of Cecil forcing his absurd musicals on Roger. "I don't think he wants to watch Cat Ballou thirty times, Ceec."

"Hey," Cecil said, pouting and pointing an accusing finger at Earl. "Cat Ballou is an amazing movie and the town founder is stunning in it! Lee Marvin is a gift to this world."

"If you say so," Earl chuckled a bit, shaking his head and sighing. He glanced around for a clock, or anything that could indicate what time it might be. Time wasn't real, so it wouldn't be a reliable answer, but it would be something.

"It's 7:53." Cecil said after a moment, placing his hands on the footboard. Sometimes Cecil just knew what to say. Plus he had that watch that apparently Carlos gave him that somehow actually knew the right time.

Earl thanked him, and after a few minutes Cecil declared that they should probably head home. Roger got up, and Earl asked him if he wanted a hug. Roger shook his head no, but gave his dad a hand squeeze instead. This was fine by Earl, who didn't want to force contact. Having a kid was hard. Earl watched in dismay as Roger jumped down from the chair and headed over, actualy grabbing Carlos' hand. Earl tried to remind himself that Carlos was new and interesting and that was all. But damn, it was hard not to feel a little cheated. 

Carlos and Roger left the room, and Cecil waved them off and said he'd catch up in a minute. Once they were gone, Cecil glanced back up at Earl and tilted his head. "I'm really glad you're okay."

"So am I," Earl nodded a bit, despite the fact that it hurt his head. "I just... I have this weird feeling. Like... I don't know. I don't feel like I'm supposed to be here." He admitted, reaching a hand up to touch the bandages on his head. God his shoulders were sore, along with all the muscles in his neck.

"Oh Earl," Cecil said, shaking his head a bit and moving to stand by the side of the bed, reaching out to place a hand ever so gentle on his shoulder. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. "I... I feel the same." He admitted, reaching up with his free hand to brush his long hair back behind his ear. Earl liked it when he wore it down like this. "I don't know why either. I... Something weird happened but I..." He made a face, and Earl would've been on the edge of his seat if that was possible. Currently, it was only metaphorically possible. "I don't know." He concluded, huffing a bit and looking at Earl with tired eyes. "I can't remember."

Earl made a face and was silent for a long moment, just looking down at the white hospital blanket over his lap. He knew better than anyone how it felt not to remember things.

"Ask your doctor about what they really wanted out of life. Ask your doctor where they went wrong. Ask them if they drink too much. Ask them the last time their kids called." The loudspeaker above head said suddenly, speaking in a loud, clear voice. It startled both Earl and Cecil, who finally exchanged a look.

"I should leave," Cecil said, sighing a bit. After a moment he leaned in, planting a gentle kiss on Earl's cheek. "Carlos can come get you tomorrow and take you home. He already offered."

"Okay." Earl replied, having nothing else to say. Cecil waved, and after a moment he was gone. Earl leaned back against his pillows and took a long, deep breath. 

Earl did not hear nor see the door open, but suddenly a doctor was next to him. She was writing down something on her clipboard. Earl watched her, startled but not afraid. "Hey," she said, offering Earl a smile that was meant to be comforting but came across as forced. Earl forced his own smile at her, nodding his head as acknowledgement. 

"So," she began, tapping her illegal writing utensil against her clipboard. "You might start experiencing headaches. As well as nausea. And possibly, memory problems..."

"Ask your doctor. Ask them. Go ahead. You can do it. We believe in you. Well, we believe in your ability to do this. Not necessarily that you exist. Sorry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> earl harlan is so sad and gay im sorry


	3. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “In other news: Simone Rigadeau, professor of Earth Sciences at the Night Vale Community College, says that her reality has split, that she is experiencing another history happening now. A history in which all of this ends. She is shutting down the Earth Sciences program in order to devote herself fully to understanding what has happened to her shattered mind, and this ended – but yet also _not_ ended – world. Well, best of luck in your new career, Simone!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is like 12k. the other chapters are like 4k each. oops.
> 
> ok some warnings for this chapter incase anyone is squicked out by any of this stuff.  
> -very very very mild eye horror, like not even violent, the eye just looks weird in a way it wouldnt normally  
> -mentions of nausea/vomiting, but nothing graphic  
> -theres some violence

The year was 1982, and Simone Rigadeau was currently seated in a classroom. This classroom was full of lots of things. There were quite a few tables in the room, as well as a wall of windows, and several aquariums that contained rocks that were prone to biting. 

Life had been going well for Dr. Rigadeau. She had a good relationship with both her parents and her sister, as well as a good number of friends and coworkers she could casually interact with. She had gained her PhD just a few years back, and had been running the Earth Science program at the community college for two years now. She was well-respected throughout Night Vale’s scientific community, and her colleagues often sought out her opinion on things.

The year was 1982. Simone Rigadeau was thirty-three years of age, and she seemed to have the rest of her life all figured out.

______________________________________________________

The year was 1983, and Simone Rigadeau was fast asleep on her desk. She had been staying late every night this week grading papers, and she had had the community radio station playing on this particular evening. Between other segments they simply played Cecil’s hand-selected playlists. Today’s had included an assortment of post-punk underground wave music that had been surprisingly soothing. Simone Rigadeau had not stood a single chance. 

The alarm woke her, though. She shot upright in her seat, glancing around. Her classroom was empty, and the alarm was distant, but loud enough to be unnerving. She glanced to the radio on her desk as the weather report faded out, and Cecil’s voice took over.

Cecil’s voice, on a usual today, worked like a safety blanket. It seemed to envelop the entirety of the town in it’s soothing embrace. Cecil made everyone feel like the world was okay, even when things that weren’t really okay were happening.

This was not the case today.

Cecil’s voice was grim. Something was wrong. “Nulogorsk, our Russian sister city, is gone. The people of Nulogorsk, our friends, they are gone too. Since then, the sky has been hot with death. So much fuel for so many rockets burning away at once, it makes the fall air seem a little warmer, even down here. Not to mention that final sizzle at the end of each.”

Simone pushed up from her chair, approaching the row of windows in her classroom. She hesitated for a moment as she listened to the words _blooms of death all over the world, hot and final_ but finally pulled the string that raised the blinds. The sky was grey with smoke, and somewhere off the distance the sky was dark and foreboding. 

“I speak to you for as long as I can from a world ending.” Cecil said next, and Simone felt her stomach lurch at what those words implied. “1983: our final year. I suppose a good a year as any.”

Simone backed away, not pausing until her backside hit a table. She heard something fall, but she didn’t dare check to see what it was. She could see things flashing about outside, and every inch of her being sparked with fear and adrenaline.

Cecil continued on as Simone slowly made her way back from the window, eyes locked on something in the distance that her brain swore was coming in closer. Cecil talked about middle aged Josie Ortiz who wouldn’t live long enough to become an old woman. Cecil also talked about the town founder, Lee Marvin, who was going to die _just_ after his thirtieth birthday. 

“And I? I will go, too. Amidst a screaming of sirens that warn without helping, that make a show of protecting without protecting at all. I will never meet that _someone_.” Simone was halfway across her classroom, stumbling backwards away from the object in the sky. “That someone who could have given my life depth and meaning, who could have been my other. I will only ever sit here, only _have_ ever sat here, behind this microphone, until I am not ever, _ever_ , again.”

Simone turned from the classroom and hurtled her body into the hallway. Despite knowing the basement would be the safest place, she had no way of getting to it quickly enough. She rushed into the bathroom, which was made of thick cement blocks. The world seemed to lurch on it’s axis, sending Simone barreling to the ground. She scrambled as dust and debris from the drywall ceiling tiles rained down on her head. She army-crawled under the far stall, burying her face against the cool tile floor and placing her hands over her head.

Somewhere far off in a radio station, there was some static. And a lot of it. A radio host delivered his final line. A line that never fully made it to the ears of his listeners. _Goodnight, from a world ending, Night Vale. Goodnight_.

The entire world was shaking around SImone Rigadeau, and she wasn’t quite sure what else to do besides wait it out. There was a loud crash behind her as ceiling tiles began collapsing to the checkered ground in dusty heaps. 

She finally risked a glance to her right, and was instantly met with a confusing amount of static. From what she could see through her right eye, the world was going fuzzy at the edges, and turning into what could only be described as white noise.

And then she could hear it. The static started out quiet, like a television on the wrong setting. And then it grew louder and louder until Simone had to clamp a hand over her right ear, eyes screwing shut. Her head was splitting, searing pain shooting up around her frontal lobe.

And then she wasn’t quite sure what happened next. She assumed she lost consciousness, because a little time later she woke up on the bathroom floor. It was dark, and she pushed up from the ground, hearing only dust flutter to the ground. She made her way to her feet, feeling around until she could get the stall open. The world was no longer shaking, so that seemed to be a good sign.

She could hear dripping, like a pipe had busted. The ceiling tiles beneath her feet were soggy, making a unnerving squelch noises as she walked. Finally she made it into the hall, which was still dark but it was a little better. At least in her left eye. That’s odd. She continued walking, moving to open up a nearby broom closet and rummaged around until she found a flashlight. She turned it on, examining the dusty mess leftover from the ceiling partially giving in that was scattered about the floor. The plastic coverings for the lights had fallen as well, but most of them were still intact. They were covered in debris from the ruined interior of the building around Simone. 

That’s when she noticed something else.

All of the things she was seeing. She could only make them out through her left eye. She paused, blinking a few times as if that would clear the vision in her one eye. When nothing happened, she decided that the panic rising up in her chest was just going to hold her back. She needed to keep herself together. She was a human being second, and a scientist _first_. 

She performed a series of small tests, involving things like waving her hand in front of her eye and even touching it. It did not hurt at all. It felt entirely normal inside her skull like it always had. Finally she made her way back into the bathroom, and reached up with the sleeve of her right arm to wipe the dust off the mirror so she could take a look at the eye. She repositioned the flashlight so it was shining directly on her face, and had to pause to do a doubletake. The eye that she was blind in looked entirely normal. There was nothing odd about it at all. It wasn’t red, or discolored in any way. But the _left_ one. That one scared her. Simone had had relatively plain brown eyes her entire life, and she had been happy with them. They didn’t stand out, but they were still a pleasant shade. Her left eye was entirely unrecognizable now. The iris was discolored, mixing brown with some unnatural shade. 

But that wasn’t even the scariest part. Inside the iris was not one, but two pupils. This hadn’t really changed the way her vision worked in any way from what she could tell with her limited light source, but those results were inconclusive. 

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t panicking. But this wasn’t important, she insisted to herself. There were other important things, like trying to see if anyone else was around, that she needed to get to.

She risked one more glance at the mirror, just examining the eye as calmly as possible. But after a few seconds of staring, static flickered in her vision and she stumbled, falling to the ground. It had blasted loudly in her right ear, but was gone the second her vision with the mirror broke. She gasped loudly, trying to catch her breath and soothe her pounding heart. That was disturbing, and she didn’t know what to make of it yet. 

But once again, there were more important matters to attend to. Countless people were bound to be dead, but there had to be several who survived. She pushed herself to her feet and gripped the flashlight tight as she once again went into the hallway. She stared at her classroom door for a long moment, but knew she shouldn’t enter it. She should avoid windows. And the outside, for that matter. She frowned at this, just starting down the long hallway sprawled out in front of her. She idly wondered if the living rocks in her classroom were affected by the radiation, but shook the thought. Yes, she was a scientist, but a scientist didn’t just learn things for the sake of learning things. They did it to _help_ people. And that’s what she needed to do. Help people. 

As Simone’s feet continued to crunch on ceiling tiles, she came to realize something. She couldn’t hear this noise through her right ear. She paused, clamping a hand down on her left to block out any noise. She wasn’t deaf in the ear, from what she could tell. All she could hear was… Wind? It sounded like what Simone imagined listening to a conch shell would sound like. Wistful and lonely and empty. Had the radiation messed with her senses? But it was so odd that it only affected her right side… But then there was her left eye… 

She shook off these thoughts, just continuing walking. “Hello?” She called out loudly, going silent for a moment. There was no reply, so she kept going. She kept yelling. She checked inside classrooms she knew had no windows. She found a chemistry classroom and entered it, and despite how silly it made her feel, she threw on a labcoat, some safety goggles, and some gloves. It wasn’t really going to protect against radiation, but it might be worth something.

Thinking about the situation at hand made her want to throw up, if she was being entirely honest. So she kept her mind focused on finding someone. _Anyone_. Another teacher, a student, a custodian. She couldn’t be completely alone in this large building. 

“Hello!” She yelled again, and this time she paused, because she was almost certain she heard something. “Hello?” She inquired, going silent as she listened to what was definitely footsteps. 

“Simone?” Somebody yelled back after a moment.

Simone began quickly down the hall, turning and coming face to face with Professor Chelsea Dubinski, who taught chemistry. Funnily enough, Chelsea was dressed quite similarly to Simone. Labcoat, goggles, gloves…

Chelsea seemed momentarily stunned by the light, after having been wandering around in the dark. “I am so glad I found somebody… I just… We were all in the process of trying to get to the basement when the first explosion hit. The ceiling gave in and I just… Ran…. I don’t know who ended up where.” She admitted, sounding defeated. She brushed the dark bangs from her face, shaking her head for a moment, and Simone could tell she had been crying. “How… how bad do you think it looks out in the town? I’ve been staying away from windows as much as possible so I…”

“We need to stay focused, Chelsea.” Simone said, hoping she didn’t come across as apathetic. “Freaking out isn’t going to help us. We need to just, find anyone we can and make a plan. We can’t go outside yet. We have to wait until it’s safe and plus the radiation levels are probably so high… We’ll probably be trapped in the building a few days. We need to find all the food we can and ration it. And we need to find all the people we can as well.”

Simone felt like her words were lost on Chelsea, who was now just gawking at her. “What?” She inquired, and as silly as it sounded, she thought for a moment she might have something stuck in her teeth. Oh, if only this situation was so frivolous. 

“What happened to your eye?” Chelsea stared a bit, her previous worry had disappeared and was replaced with sheer interest and mild horror. “Did…. The radiation do that? Can you see?”

“I passed out during the explosions and woke up like this.” Simone admitted, making a face. “As for seeing… I can see fine out of that one. I’m blind in the other one, though.”

“That’s…. Weird.” It wasn’t a scientific observation. But it was relatively accurate to how Simone felt about the whole thing. “Does it hurt?”

“No. And I’d rather not focus on it. I’m attempting to ignore any urges to panic, and instead focus on the important things at hand.” Simone passed Chelsea, wandering down that hallway quickly. The staff break room was bound to have some food in it, and they would need to figure out where to go from there.

Chelsea followed after the other professor, labcoat fluttering behind her as she hurried to keep up. “You know, we were just _bombed_ Simone. Like, if you want to freak out a little, I think that would be acceptable!” 

Simone pushed open the door to the staff break room, glancing around. It was empty, but a chair was knocked over. She crossed over to the fridge, and opened it. It was still cool inside, despite the lack of power. Simone’s first action was to take a water from the fridge, and without much thought, downed the whole thing. 

“Okay,” she finally said, glancing over the items in the fridge before closing it to hold in the cold air. She checked the cupboards, and noted that they had a decent supply of different kinds of crackers and some bread, along with a jar of peanut butter. Also some Girl Scout cookies. Dr. Galleti, the dean of science, technology, technology with finger quotes, and mathematics, had a young daughter who had been selling them. Simone had bought quite a few of the shortbread cookies, and vaguely remembered some boxes sitting in the bottom drawer of her desk. Simone took a long moment to think about Dr. Galleti’s young daughter, and wondered if she was alright. She felt her eyes mist up, and despite trying her hardest, she couldn’t push those thoughts away. She found a chair, sank into it slowly, and let herself sob.

______________________________________________________

The next four days were undoubtedly the toughest time of Simone’s short life. They had managed to find a few other staff members, including Dr. Ibrahim al-Anizi, Dr. June Richter, and Dr. Alen Stein. June was the nursing professor, so she was relatively useful to have around. And Ibrahim was a biologist, and thus another scientist on their side. Alen taught political science, which was not actual science and was entirely based in politics, but he was still another set of hands.

They managed to ration the food out between the five of them, and despite Chelsea being a little reluctant to eat anything that was not kosher, the group in its entirety agreed that beggars can’t be choosers. They had several large jugs of water left as well, which were used to refill the water coolers around the school. 

Everybody seemed to have a different opinion of what to do, though. Simone wanted to wait a few more days before they wandered off into town. The radiation outside could possibly kill them. Ibrahim had been nauseous for days now, and admitted he had been by a window when everything had gone down. Ibrahim thought they should simply stay where they were until they ran out of supplies. Maybe somebody would come to save them. June wanted to go see if there were any stragglers out and about that they could help. Chelsea thought they should all spend their free time in bloodstone circles, praying for the best. That didn’t sound like a bad idea, honestly, but Alen refused to join. Alen wanted to get out of town. He thought they should all just find a car that still worked and get as far away from this place as possible. Nobody knew exactly how to leave Night Vale, but Alen was more than willing to test a couple of his own theories.

Hell, they even yelled into every poorly hidden microphone they could find, but no one replied. No Sheriff’s Secret Police, no Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency, no anybody. Just dead silence. 

After about three more days, Ibrahim was just as sick and they were out of bread. They were scraping the bottom of the peanut butter jar, and putting the substance on crackers. This is when they finally came to the conclusion that they should just leave. Simone personally did not want to die of starvation if they ran out of food, and while Acute Radiation Syndrome didn’t sound much more pleasant, it would be far more interesting. Simone was a scientist first.

They gathered any spare backpacks they could find around the building, as well as any flashlights and extra clothes. There were some jackets in the lost and found, so most of them tried to double up the fabric on themselves. And as silly as it was, soon enough they were all in safety goggles and gloves. They even took some surgical masks from the nursing room, and donned those as well. They filled every container they could find with water, and rationed out the rest of the food amongst one another. And then they made their way through the halls, unsure of where to start.

“Let’s go through my classroom,” Simone suggested, hurrying up front to lead the group around. “Outside my windows there’s a small section of roof and a water drain leading to the ground. It won’t be easy but we could shimmy down it.” Simone knew that the ground was bound to look a mess, and leaving through the ground floor probably would be more trouble than it’s worth. 

The rest of the professors simply followed Simone, and paused as she did outside her classroom door. They fidgeted about nervously as Simone sort of stared at the handle for a solid minute. Then finally she gripped it tight, turned it, and pushed the door open. Nothing happened, so Simone took a step inside.

The windows were shattered in, and there were a couple rocks crawling about the floor. They seemed relatively okay, so Simone made the effort to find their feed, open it up, and lay it down on the floor so they would find it. She wasn’t sure how they escaped their cages, but that was the least of her worries. None of the other professors followed her into her classroom.

“How do you feel?” Somebody finally inquired.

“Fine, I guess.” Simone said, moving to her desk and opening it. She retrieved the cookies she had in the drawer and stuffed them into her bag, as well as any other snacks she had in there. 

Finally June entered the room next, nodding a bit and motioning for the others to follow. And slowly they did. June ventured forward, crawling up onto the small counter on the inner side of the windows. She was careful to avoid any glass that could injure her, and stood up on the surface. “Where do you think the bomb went off? I mean, I see a lot of broken windows from here but for the most part the buildings around us are intact.”

“It had to hit around the middle of town,” Alen pointed out, looking around and sort of making a mental map of the town. “We should avoid that area… I think anything within a five mile radius of where it landed is dangerous.”

June nodded, stepping over the broken glass of the window and hopping the small jump to the roof below. It was slanted, so she had to be careful, but she wandered close to the edge and peered down. “It’s about… Eight feet.” She judged, before glancing around. “The wind is blowing. I see dust in the air but… That could also be sand.” They were all wearing masks though, so that would be alright. Their eyes were covered too. “Come on,” she instructed, and reached up to assist Chelsea in helping Ibrahim out. He was weak, and hadn’t been retaining food well. No doubt he caught some radiation during the initial blast. 

Once they were all on the roof, Simone was the first to shimmy her way down the drain pipe and make it to the ground. Alen helped Ibrahim down, and Simone kept herself braced incase he slipped and needed assistance. They made their way down one at a time, and soon enough they were all on the ground. 

“Who has the biggest car?” Chelsea inquired, glancing between the group of them and June raised her hand.

“I think I do,” she admitted. “Eight seats.” Everyone in the group glanced at each other, before nodding and agreeing. So they all stayed along the walls of the building, walking slowly until they made it to the parking lot. Finally they broke off, feeling sand and dust bounce off their jackets as they followed June to her car. She put the key in the hole on the door, and unlocked the vehicle, and soon they were all safe inside. The car started without any issues, and they all silently thanked the masters of us all. 

“Now…” Alen started, looking around. “Where are we going to go?” 

“Well,” June said, placing her hands on the steering wheel and navigating them out of the parking lot. “I say that we should give a look around. There might be a few others, and we have some more room. I mean, even if we have to pile on top of each other, the more people we can help, the better.”

Nobody could argue with that, even if they were all worried about their own safety. Separately, they were a geologist, a biologist, a chemist, a political scientist, and a nurse. But together, they were all teachers. And teachers helped people. 

The next hour or so was rather grim, to say the least. Many of the buildings that had taken a low blow from the explosion had sparked when the electricity gave out, and several of them were smoldering aimlessly in the hot summer sun. Cars packed parts of the street, ramming into one another. And there wasn’t another soul in sight.

“I see some hooded figures,” Chelsea spoke from the back left seat, nudging Alen who was tucked between her and Ibrahim. She pointed them out, and everyone stared at the group of figures huddled in a circle. “Are they surrounding something?” She whispered this part, looking nervous. June pulled the car to a stop, and for a long moment everyone simply watched the figures. 

After a moment the figures dispersed, they all noticed that the group had been surrounding a child who looked to be about eleven or so. June was the first one out of the car before anyone could say something. The child was wrapped in several thick layers of clothes, and had probably passed out from dehydration or something along those lines. The hooded figures loomed around as June knelt down by the boy, helping him up to his feet and wrapping an arm tightly around his midsection. “Come on sweetheart,” she said to him, walking him back to the car. None of the figures moved. With some help from Chelsea, they moved Ibrahim to the back seats and got the boy in the car. 

“Make him drink something,” June instructed, getting in the front seat and driving away from the figures. They hadn’t done anything, but they made her nervous all the same. She glanced up to her overhead mirror, watching Chelsea follow her instructions. “Do any of you know him?”

There was a murmur of “no” throughout the car, as they all examined the boy. He was wearing a pair of swimming goggles, along with a beanie, and a thick scarf wrapped around his mouth to keep him from breathing in dust. Chelsea pulled the scarf down, and pulled the beanie off. She carefully removed the goggles, and blinked. The kid had a headful of shiny black hair, and epicanthic folds that hinted at an Asian heritage. 

“I still don’t know who he is,” Chelsea admitted and sighed, settling back in her seat with the boy now in the middle. “Is he going to be okay? What were the hooded figures doing?”

“Just staring at him, I think.” June admitted as she drove, carefully turning around a corner where the shop there had partially crumbled down into the street. 

It was almost another hour before the boy woke up, stirring a bit and immediately looking rather frightened. It was only expected. Especially in a situation like this, and waking up in a car full of strangers.

“Calm down,” Chelsea said, watching the boy wriggle in fear. “You can call me Dr. Dubinski. We’re all teachers from the college.” She moved to pull her nametag from her pocket, offering it to the boy. The boy finally stilled, taking the laminated card in both hands and staring at it for a long time like he could figure out if it was a fake. Who would have time to make fake IDs in a nuclear explosion? “What’s your name?” She finally inquired.

The young boy paused, before handing the ID back. “Steve,” he replied. “Steve Carlsberg.” 

“Steve, where are your parents?” June inquired softly, glancing back at him before turning her attention back to the road. She was just sort of making a big circle around the town, and her next destination was the old used car lot. Maybe some people had wandered to the edge of town.

“They’re both dead,” Steve said this, but not with newfound remorse. “I’ve lived with my aunt most of my life, but she… Well..” This is when he sounded sad, and did not continue telling the story. Nobody blamed him.

“Hey,” June said as they got close to the used car lot. The salesmen were nowhere in sight, and not howling like they usually were. But past that was the house that belonged to Josie Ortiz, and there was definitely activity there. Some creatures… 

June drove up to the gate, pausing and watching the tall winged creatures move about the yard. They were different shades of black, white, and grey, and all had many eyes and abnormal anatomies. Acknowledging what these creatures were was normally illegal but… It was a special circumstance… 

“Let’s see what they know,” Simone finally spoke up, and nobody argued. Despite this, Simone was the only one who left the car and went to investigate. She paused at the chain link gate, and the creatures were examining her now. “Hello.” She finally spoke up.

“Hi,” one of them replied. This one was smoke-colored. 

“Is… Is anyone safe here?” Simone finally asked, not sure what else to do. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but the angel replying in clean simple English definitely hadn’t been it.

“Yes.” The angel replied, nodding it’s oddly shaped head a few times. “Josie is in there. Along with a couple other people from town. And Cecil Palmer.”

Simone nodded at this, and glanced back at the others before waving her hand that it was safe. One of the angels, this one was actually checkerboard patterned, opened the gate and let all of them into the yard.

Once they were inside the house, Simone took in her surroundings. All of the windows had been boarded up, covered in several layers of things to protect them from letting in any unwanted radiation. People were scattered about. Some seemed okay, but some laid about with red burns on their skin or were hugging a trash can.

Simone spotted Cecil Palmer right away. He was on a blanket on the floor, a trash bin held against his side, eyes closed and looking sick. She had never actually spoken to Cecil Palmer in person, so the moment was a little surreal. The voice she heard on the radio every single day for as long as she could remember was right there. 

She found herself wandering over towards him and taking a seat. He cracked his eyes open, staring at her for a moment.

“Simone, right?” He said suddenly, his voice a little hoarse but easily recognizable. 

Simone paused, a little shocked. She wasn’t sure how he knew her name, but Cecil seemed to know most people. “Yeah. Simone Rigadeau. Nice to meet you.”

Cecil sat up after a moment, making a face. His hair was messy, and had fading pink strands in it. His clothes were brightly colored and era-esque. It was the 80s, afterall. The neon leg warmers and the giant bow in his hair just seemed to stand out amongst the dreary world. “Nice to meet you too,” he said, offering up a slightly forced smile. He coughed into the elbow of his arm for a moment before glancing around. “Were you at the college when this all happened?”

“Yeah,” Simone nodded a bit, sighing. “I was actually listening to your broadcast and… What happened? You were closer to where the explosion was, right?”

Cecil nodded a bit, sighing and reaching up to pull his messy hair back into a ponytail. “Yeah. It probably went off… Maybe four miles from the station? I don’t know. All I know is there was a lot of shaking and I keep throwing up.” He made a face, sighing and wiping some cold sweat off his forehead. “I do not mean to be rude in asking this, but has your eye always been like that?”

Simone had almost forgotten about her eye, if she was being entirely honest. “Oh, no. This all happened after the explosion…” Simone still wasn’t quite sure what had happened, and she still couldn’t see out of her right eye or hear from her right ear.

“Hey,” another voice interjected, speaking loudly. The other professors who had been settling in to greet the others all paused, and everyone stared at Josie Ortiz who stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Who wants some corn muffins?” She finally inquired, brows arched, face relaxed. She was a hard-ass of a woman and everyone knew this.

“She forgot the salt again.” The checkerboard-patterned angel said from across the room, and all the others hummed in unison. Josie Ortiz always forgot the salt.

______________________________________________________

The next several months were a little grim, but not entirely awful. At some point about half of the group decided to try and leave town, but every time they drove out of the city they somehow found themselves back in Night Vale. Night Vale was not an easy place to leave.

“It won’t work,” Cecil spoke loudly as Alen got into the front seat of the car. This was the third day in a row they had tried this. “What are you going to do differently this time that’s going to make it magically work?”

“Oh fuck off Cecil,” Alen said, and Cecil made a face at this. “I can’t just. Sit here. I have to at least try. The town is fried. Everyone is fucking dead.”

“And you think I’m not aware of that?” Cecil inquired, brows raised and anger flashing in his abnormally colored eyes. “The only family I have is gone! My entire life is ruined! So would you just stop---” He was cut off when Alen didn’t bother listening to the rest, and revved the engine and drove off. This knocked a ton of sand and dust in the air, and Cecil coughed and flipped the car off as it drove away. 

“He’s going to have a breakdown,” Simone finally spoke up. She had been standing in the back for some time now. At this point the fallout was two months passed, and they could only guess that it was the beginning of April now. “He’s been cracking for days. Don’t take it personally.”

Cecil shook his head, sighing and backing away from the drive and closing the chain link gate behind him. He looked to Simone, his face worn and tired. She took in his features for a moment. Particularly the purple moon on his forehead.

“It changes with the cycle, correct?” Simone changed the subject, eyeing the celestial body imprinted in the other’s skin.

“Yeah,” Cecil nodded, before well, just laying down on the sidewalk. “My sister had the same one but… For some reason her’s was always half crescent. It didn’t change like mine. Our mother’s did, though.” He mused this to himself, raising an arm to examine the purple freckles there. Despite looking a mess, Simone quietly thought to herself that Cecil was quite beautiful. It was an odd thought to have.

“That is particularly interesting, isn’t it?” Simone hummed, glancing up and watching the car Alen was driving come back into view. “Here he comes…”

“I’m going to kick his ass,” Cecil announced as he peeled himself off the ground and brushed the dust off of himself. “He came back even quicker! Usually he’s gone at least twenty minutes.”

“Maybe he found something?” Simone inquired, watching as the car drove back rather quickly, dust fluttering up behind it. She almost wondered if it was going to stop at all, when she realized somebody was in the passenger seat. “Hey, there’s someone with him!” She called, opening the gate and rushing out to the side of the road. 

Within a minute Alen was pulling up along the dusty drive, opening the door. And from the passenger side emerged another man. A man made of freckles and red hair and a somber smile that went past Simone and to Cecil. A nineteen year old Earl Harlan. And then from the backseat emerged three boys, all who were probably about the age of ten or younger. They were all a little filthy, but looked healthy. 

“Earl,” Cecil spoke softly, and after the longest minute of either of their lives his arms were around the other tightly. The hug was returned awkwardly at first, but after a long moment, Earl’s arms tightened needily around the other. And they stood there for a long while like they thought they might just sink into each other's existence if they waited long enough. 

Within ten minutes everyone was inside, and the boys were picking at what was left of the girl scout cookies. Earl was cleaning up with a baby wipe, which wasn’t much but it was what they had after raiding The Ralph’s. 

“Have you guys been out in the desert this whole time?” Cecil inquired, seated on a couch in the living room and just watching Earl. 

“Yeah, basically. We were out camping when everything happened.” He sat down across from Cecil on the other couch, slouching in his spot like he was exhausted. He was rather sunburnt, and he did look as if he could use a nap. “These boys couldn’t make the other camping trip and they had to do a make-up so they could earn their _Beat A Cactus In A Sword Fight_ , and _Don’t Get Eaten By Wild Librarians_ badges.” 

“Then we saw the explosion from where we were out in the desert. I had my walkie with me and everyone at the scout station told me to keep these boys out here where it was safe because the radiation in town could be really bad. So that’s what I did. I mean there’s animals out there, and there are ways to get water. They’re… They are all alright. I did my best.”

“Yeah,” Cecil nodded, reaching out to place a hand atop of Earl’s, squeezing it. “You did a really, really good job Earl. Those boys look great. And… I’m so glad you’re okay.” His voice cracked a bit as he said this, tears misting up in his gaze. Earl looked shocked.

“Cecil are you… Crying?” He could blatantly see that Cecil was crying, but he was having trouble processing this. “Please don’t. I’m fine and…” And they hadn’t spoken in years. Why was Cecil so emotional?

“I think Abby’s dead,” Cecil said after a moment, placing a hand over his mouth and choking back tears. “I’ve… I’ve looked for her everywhere and I just… I thought I had lost everyone, Early.” 

Simone had watched Cecil keep it relatively together for the last two months, but here he was, sobbing. And here was this random redhead, wounding pale limbs around the other and just holding him. And as sad as it was, it reminded Simone of happier things. 

They were all still human.

______________________________________________________

Simone assumed it was currently July. That Steve kid had been keeping track of the days on the calendar, but time wasn’t real and couldn’t be trusted anyway. He didn’t get along well with the other kids. It wasn’t that he wasn’t nice or anything. If anything, Stevie was too nice. To the point it was almost annoying. The other kids didn’t know what to do with him.

The setup was different now. They were all still stationed mostly in Josie’s house, but they had managed to get their hands on some tents and had basically filled up Josie’s backyard. They had moved around some of the cars in the used car lot as well, and put up several large tents so they had a cool, covered space to work in and keep their supplies. 

It was very early in the morning according to the clock in Josie’s house, but that could be lying. She sighed as she opened up the back door and weaved between paths of tents to one in the back left corner of the yard. Her’s was a small tent next to it, but this one was slightly bigger and held two people. “Cecil,” she said as she knelt by it and slowly unzipped it. “Cecil, wake up.” 

Inside the tent laid two bodies, one belonging to Earl Harlan and the other to Cecil Palmer. Their bodies were intertwined, Earl’s back to Cecil’s chest, and their clothes were scattered about the small space. Simone made a face, but reached up to grab Cecil’s leg that was sticking out from under the blanket. “Cecil, put some pants on and come on. I need a few people to go The Ralph’s with me.”

“Mmm,” Cecil hummed, glancing down at Simone for a moment before yawning and nodding. He gently untangled his arms from around Earl and sat up in the tiny space. He rubbed his eyes, and gently moved to stroke the bare hip of the man next to him. “Early bird, wakey wakey. You wanna go to The Ralph’s?”

Simone left the tent, zipping it closed and sighing. She ducked into her own tiny space, grabbing her bag and tossing it over her shoulder. She yawned, and headed over to the backyards gate and opening it. She walked the couple feet to the fence of the car lot, and slid into a hole they had cut out for this purpose. She passed several rusting cars that had been sitting for years, stacked atop one another. She wandered through the car maze for a moment before entering part of the large series of hanging tarps and deformed wedding tents they had throw together for a shelter. It held together and kept the sun out of their eyes, and that was all that mattered. All the surrounding cars blocked out the wind as well, so things were relatively peaceful here. She turned on one of the solar powered lanterns they had so she could see and headed over to a table.

“Morning,” June replied, having been rationing out breakfast for everyone. It wasn’t much, but Simone took what was handed to her and sat in one of the lawn chairs inside the tent and ate it relatively quickly. June tossed her a canteen, and she took a couple sips.

“How are we doing?” Simone finally inquired, not sure if she actually wanted the answer.

“Well,” June made a face, sighing and reaching up to brush her natural hair back. “I checked the solar stills Earl setup and we are good on water. I filled all the canteens we own, which is great. We need a lot of things, though. Just… Take whatever you can from The Ralph’s, okay?”

Simone was going to reply when they heard footsteps. She glanced up, watching as Cecil and Earl wandered into the tent. They were both relatively half asleep, and their hands were interlocked, but they were there. “Eat,” she told them. 

June provided them with their rations, and they both took a seat and ate their food in comfortable silence. Earl finally got up to fetch their canteens, sipping on his as he handed Cecil the other one. “Does the car have gas in it?” He finally inquired.

“We’re going to have to siphon some,” Cecil spoke up, tucking his canteen into his bag. “I can do it. I have the tube and stuff in my bag.” He got up, yawning a bit and patting Earl’s bottom on the way around to the other part of the tent. Earl’s face was redder than his hair, and Simone just rolled her eyes. 

Once they were out in the car, they drove a little ways until they pulled over and Cecil retrieved the jerry can from the trunk. He pulled a tube from his pack, and picked a car at random. He got the tube into the gas tank, sucking on it for a moment before coughing a bit and spitting gasoline out of his mouth, slipping the tube into the mouth of the red plastic canister and waiting. He spat a couple more times while he waited for the flow to stop, coughing and sighing. Earl offered him a stick of gum, and even slid it into his mouth for him while Cecil’s hands were full. 

As odd as their thrown together life was, they were doing relatively okay. It wasn’t the life Simone had expected for herself, but it wasn’t the worst either. They just had to hold out until they had a better plan.

________________________________________________________

It was October now, and a few of them had moved. Just temporarily. Simone was amongst this small group, along with the boy Steve, Cecil and Earl, and Chelsea and Ibrahim. They had been trying to collect data on the desert out here, and formulate a plan to maybe leave Night Vale. At this point, they weren’t entirely convinced it was possible to leave. They had always known people who “left” but they were beginning to think that maybe those people just stopped existing instead. 

Simone sat in the dusty sand, tapping the tip of her pen against her notebook and sighing. She was out of ideas, if she was being entirely frank. She let her eyes trail elsewhere besides her notes. “Earl, are they ready?” 

Earl was sitting around the fire pit they had built, and was currently skinning one of the snakes he had found. He glanced up from his work, before handing it to Cecil next to him to finish. He retrieved a rag from his bag and wiped off his hands before heading over to the solar stills and kneeling down next to them. “Looks like it.” He said, carefully removing the rocks from the saran wrap and lifting it. He reached into the hole, retrieving the tin can full of water. Earl nodded, and Simone slid her canteen across the sand and Earl carefully refilled it, before giving it back. 

Simone took a couple sips of the warm water, and idly wondered if she’d ever see ice again. She moved around a bit, sliding back under the shade of the patio umbrella she had set up in the sand. “We need new ideas.” She finally declared, shaking her head. 

“Maybe we need to sacrifice something.” Cecil suggested, shrugging a bit. “Just do a giant bloodstone circle and sacrifice the largest animal we can find. We aren’t going to find much help if we aren’t appeasing the masters of us all while we do it.”

“He has a point,” Earl nodded a bit as he began digging a new hole in the dirt with a small shovel. Building these small solar stills had become second nature to the scout master.

“Okay, but what large animal are we going to find? I mean, we see a lot of snakes and occasionally a coyote.” Chelsea made a face, adjusting the sunhat she was wearing to block out the overbearing glowing ball of fire above head.

“We could find a wild librarian,” Steve suggested, and everyone turned to give him the same bewildered look. “What? They are huge and hard to take down. It would be a very admirable sacrifice.”

“Wild librarians are very dangerous!” Cecil said, shaking his head and making an angry face, glaring at Steve. “Were you not taught this in school? Wild librarians are not to be messed with!”

After a moment of silence, Earl Harlan sighed in a way that Simone knew was about to start something. “Steve’s right.”

Cecil deadpanned for a long moment, looking over at Earl. “I… What? The hell he is! Earl, do you know how easily a librarian could tear you apart?”

“Cecil, do you know how easily we could starve to death here in this desert?” Earl retorted, frowning. Cecil was angry, but Earl had no rage to offer in return. “I’m not saying we go out looking for a wild librarian or anything but… If the opportunity arises… We should try to kill it.”

“We’d all die.” Simone spoke up now, not leaving the protection of her umbrella’s shade. “None of us would stand a chance and you know it. I get it. We’re hungry, and it’s hot, and we’re desperate and don’t have a plan. But… Sneak attacking a beast that we aren’t even sure can be killed… It’s fucking idiotic.”

“I heard this story once,” Steve started, interrupting the current argument. “There were a bunch of like, kids. Like older kids and they were all partying and drinking and stuff. And they were out here in the desert around a bonfire and were attacked by a wild librarian. A couple of them died but then like, one of them had the sense to light the librarian on fire and it panicked and ran away! We could maybe light it on fire and weaken it first!”

“I remember that,” Earl spoke, glancing over at Cecil. “That was our graduation, Cecil. You were drunk off bourbon and we were laying in the sand when… When that librarian showed up and…” Earl paused, making a face. “I don’t really remember what else happened after that…”

Cecil watched him, face portraying nothing less than complete confusion. “Earl, there was no librarian at our graduation. I mean, I was drunk. Definitely. I drank a lot of bourbon alongside all of that orange milk and… I remember we made out in the sand and there was some chanting in the background but… I don’t remember a librarian being set on fire.”

“No, no, it happened.” Earl insisted, reaching up to rub his temples like he could massage the memories back into his brain. “I mean, I was drinking too but not nearly as much as you and I remember… There was a lot of screaming Cecil. You were so drunk, too. I think I had to almost carry you and... “ He sunk to the ground, his boyish features contorted into something much older for a long moment, before relaxing finally and letting out a defeated sigh. “...Something bad happened, but I don’t remember what.”

“I don’t remember any of this,” Cecil said, making a face and looking away from the other. “I remember… The bonfire, definitely. It was dark outside, and the void looked beautiful. And I drank too much and I remember thinking about how your mom was going to kill you over all the hickeys I was going to leave on your pale neck and...”

“Cecil,” Simone said warningly, glancing over at the young Steve who was glued to every word the group was currently saying. 

Cecil glanced to Steve, before looking back at Earl. “That’s all I remember. I don’t remember anything about a librarian. Like, even if I was very drunk when it happened and that’s why I don’t remember it happening, somebody would’ve said _something_ afterwards Earl. Maybe you dreamt it?”

“I…” Earl opened his mouth to speak, but then his lips mashed together in a flat line as he tried to consider this. “Maybe,” he finally admitted.

“So…” Simone finally leaned back in the sand, draping her notebook over her face and let out a sigh. “Can we go back to trying to come up with ideas?”

______________________________________________________

The month was December, and 1983 was coming to an end. It was probably about mid-month from what the calendar Steve kept with him said. He had been relatively strict about keeping track of the days, and while time was never a sure thing, it was kind of nice to have an idea.

They were still stuck in Night Vale, and had began exploring other ideas to leave. The main road wasn’t going to help them, so they began checking the perimeter around the entirety of the town. There were smaller roads that led out into the desert to nearby towns as well, so they just had to keep looking.

They were currently set up inside an old warehouse they had found about three miles out in the desert along a side road. It was hot inside, but blocked out the sun. The place was littered with papers that indicated it had been used by a Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency, and Cecil vehemently refused to look at any of them. Just like he still refused to call Josie’s tall winged friends angels. He was stuck in his ways.

The sun had gone down already, so at least the warehouse was cooling off inside. Earl was outside, stocking a fire and cooking up a couple of the snakes they had managed to get their hands on, and Cecil was inside repairing a pair of pants for Chelsea. It was quiet. 

At least until there was a very loud crashing noise, and everyone froze up and glanced over to Steve who had knocked down a couple of crates. “Sorry!” He hissed. “Earl, it’s okay!” He called so the other wouldn’t panic and run inside. “I knocked something over!” 

“You really should learn to be more graceful,” Cecil said bitterly as he worked a needle through fabric skillfully, like he had done the same thing thousands of times before. As old as he was, Simone was sure he had actually done this thousands of times.

“What’s in them?” Simone inquired curiously. She was a scientist first, afterall. And scientists asked questions.

“Mirrors,” Steve said, beginning to retrieve several large mirrors from the boxes that weren’t broken up and setting them up side-by-side. Cecil and Simone had very similar reactions of anxiety over this. 

Ibrahim was the first to head over and inspect the mirrors. “They look normal. Expensive, probably. Imported?” He hummed, touching the wood frames. 

“I hate mirrors,” Cecil replied sternly, grumbling a bit as he wiggled around so his back was to the reflective surfaces.

Simone had not always hated mirrors, but ever since the nuclear attack she saw static anytime she stared at one too long. “Same,” she finally muttered, and followed Cecil’s lead.

Earl returned after several minutes, passing out sticks with pieces of cooked snake on the ends. Everyone ate in silence, the only sounds being that of Chelsea flipping through some of the papers they had found in the warehouse.

“Anything interesting?” Earl finally inquired, and Cecil shot him a look. Earl did not see this, considering his attention was entirely on Chelsea.

“A lot of it’s written in code,” Chelsea admitted, sighing and shrugging. “But I found a magazine with some horoscopes in it.”

At this, Cecil perked up. “Ooh! Can I read them?” He used to read horoscopes on the radio a lot, and honestly, he missed it. Chelsea tossed him the magazine, and he opened up to the page of zodiac predictions. 

“Aries,” he started, glancing around and Chelsea grinned and raised her hand. Chelsea didn’t believe in horoscopes, but she had been an avid fan of the broadcast and hearing Cecil in his serious radio announcer tone of voice had her all nostalgic already. “Boy, we really hope you aren’t scared of spiders. We really really _really_ hope you aren’t scared of spiders. Oh? You are? Well, if it is any consolation, it will be over quickly.”

He continued reading the horoscopes aloud, occasionally glancing around to see if anyone in the warehouse was that sign. This was a relaxing process, if everyone was being honest. Cecil’s voice draped all of them and sunk into their skin like it was permeable to it. Everyone’s heartbeats slowed and they relaxed in their spots, overtaken by just how comforting this experience was. 

“Capricorn,” Cecil read, glancing over at Earl who grinned a bit at the call of his own sign. “Be careful, Capricorn. Just be. No, what are you doing? What did we _just_ tell you, Capricorn? You never listen to us. We are just trying to help you but there you are, scoffing.” Earl was indeed scoffing, but paused when he heard the part where the stars knew he was scoffing.

“Odd,” he commented, sighing and reaching up to brush his hair back. It was getting long, and Cecil was probably going to have to cut it again soon. “Just be? What does that even mean?”

“Well,” Cecil mused, before shrugging. “I have no idea. But the stars think you aren’t going to listen to them, so you better just be, Earl.” He grinned, moving on to read his own horoscope. “Aquarius. You really should do something about all of those credit card bills piling up. You are in debt, Aquarius. You should probably burn down your house and comment insurance fraud, or something like that. We want in on it, Aquarius.” Cecil laughed, closing the magazine and setting it on the ground. “Well, I don’t think I have to worry about that problem anymore.” He laid back on the sleeping bag set out on the concrete floor, closing his eyes and humming. Everyone agreed. It was late.

Many people turned in, including Cecil and Chelsea and Ibrahim. Earl used his walkie to talk to Josie on the other side of town, and everyone there was alright. Alen could bring them more food during the daylight hours if they needed it, and the Erikas had managed to gather up a bunch of tea from around town so they weren’t just drinking warm water all the time. The boy scouts they had left behind were keeping up with Earl’s solar stills, and had even managed to kill a coyote with a rubber band and an assortment of old coins. Earl was very proud.

Simone sat up late, using one of the solar powered lanterns to read her notes. Her notebook was full of pointless facts, as if writing them down would make the solution abundantly more clear. They had tried sacrifices, they had tried different routes. Hell, at one point they had tried to find a librarian. The library was too close to the center of town though, and anytime they drove too close they all began to feel nauseous and couldn’t fight the feeling for days afterwards. 

According to Steve’s watch it was 3:39AM. According to Earl’s watch it was 2:17PM. There was no way to be sure, but it was pitch black outside, so Simone assumed that Steve’s was probably more accurate. The three of them laid around in a circle, staring at Simone’s notes like doing so might spark ideas.

Earl’s head perked up at a noise outside, shushing the rest of the group so he could listen. “Sounds like a coyote,” he pushed up from his stomach and onto his knees, brushing himself off and quietly stood. “It could be breakfast.” He finally looked to Steve and nodded his head. “Come with me. You need to learn how to do this.”

Steve blinked, before finally nodding. He had always wanted to be a boy scout, but he was never picked to join. He had cried for days when he was younger and all of his friends had received invitations to join. 

Simone watched the two boys quietly make their way out of the tent, both armed with knives. She sighed and looked back to her notes, and rested her chin in her hand. She heard the yelp of what was definitely a coyote and made a face.

She was drifting off in her palm, if she was being entirely honest with herself. This science should make sense, but the most she could focus on was Ibrahim’s quiet snoring and the talking on the other side of one of the metal walls. 

“Have you ever had to gut an animal before?” Earl had a somber voice. It’s quiet and relaxing. Simone can picture Steve shaking his head ‘no’ in reply. “You want to slice along here. The underbelly is an area most animals protect very dearly, because it’s all soft and where most of the organs are. You’re going to have to slice,” Earl paused, and Simone was sure he was doing just that in the light of the dimming fire outside for Steve to watch. “Along here. Once that is done, carefully make sure to remove all of the intestines and things of that sort.” Simone quietly continued to listen to Earl graphically explain how to gut and go about cleaning this animal. Despite the gruesomeness of the tutorial, Earl’s voice had her fighting off sleep. 

She couldn’t have been asleep for more than five minutes when she was startled awake by yelling. No, not yelling. _Screaming_. She pushed up to her feet, not even pausing to grab anything. She was half asleep, but she was running quick outside.

Steve was screaming, having grabbed a stick from the fire and was waving it around. There was blood. A lot of blood. Simone looked up and was met staring face to face with the spot where eyes should be. Black tendrils whipped around above head, and the librarian reached out with a large taloned hand to swing in Steve’s direction, but hissed at the feeling of fire on its skin. Simone only had a moment to comprehend that the smell of blood from the coyote must have attracted the wild creature.

Simone saw Earl off in the distance a few feet, laying face down in the sand. Simone could see blood. It was all his blood. There was so much blood.

“What’s going on?” Cecil yelled from somewhere behind Simone, and she could hear his footsteps halt, and then his screaming. Everyone was screaming. Simone’s right eye, which had been calm for months, flickered static. 

“Chelsea, where’s that whiskey you keep in your bag?” Simone suddenly yelled, turning to watch Cecil dart off to where Earl was, and Chelsea ready to bound the other direction. “CHELSEA!”

Chelsea looked to Simone, wide eyed but disappeared around the corner for a moment. Simone looked back to Steve, who didn’t notice the tendril wrapping around his socked ankle. The librarians toxins easily seeped through the fabric, stinging the boys ankle as he whacked the arm with the fiery stick. It recoiled, letting out a screech that made everyone cringe. Simone could vaguely hear wailing in the background. 

Chelsea returned, shoving the bottle into Simone’s hands. Chelsea was crying. Her entire body was shaking. Simone realized that both of these things were true for herself as well. She took the bottle, and without a second thought, tossed it at the librarian. It shattered, soaking the creature. Simone’s vision flickered white noise again in the eye she couldn’t see out of.

Steve had a tendril wrapping around his arm, but he was a smart boy. Despite the toxin leaking into his skin, he tossed the flaming stick at the librarian and it caught fire almost immediately thanks to the accelerant. The librarian dropped Steve to the ground, and began backwards, letting out loud screeches, one after another. 

This didn’t kill the librarian. If anything, it made it angrier. so much angrier. It flopped over in the sand, rolling around desperately. It’s tendrils waved around, smacking Steve over. He crawled along the ground, scurrying to get away.

Simone wasn’t sure when she moved, but she was doing exactly that. She ran over, gripping Cecil Palmer rough around the shoulders and yanking him back. He screamed, and she wasn’t sure if he was trying to speak but whatever he was saying didn’t sound like any language she had ever heard before. He was covered in blood. Earl’s blood.

“He’s dead!” Simone yelled back, registering that there was no way Earl Harlan was alive. There was so much blood. And looking at the body, she just knew. So she did what she had to. Which involved her gripping Cecil’s clothes and hair and clawing at his skin as she basically dragged a screaming, sobbing radio host back into the warehouse. 

Simone didn’t stop dragging him once they got inside. She dragged him all the way to the back by the crates, and quickly pinned him down. He struggled and pushed and screamed and Simone put her hand over his mouth.

“Be quiet!” She hissed, tears streaking down her face. “There is a librarian outside! We need to do something!” She wasn’t sure what possessed her to do it, but she hit him. She hit him hard across the face and he gawked at her with wide, puffy eyes for a long moment before doing exactly what she should have expected. He hit her back. It knocked her to the side, leaving her dazed for a long moment as Cecil sat up. 

“Would you two stop it!” Ibrahim hissed, him and Chelsea barricading the door with crates and anything else they could find. It wouldn’t hold off the creature once it stopped burning, though. 

They could all hear it screech again, everyone pausing in their spots to wince and clamp hands over their ears. Simone’s vision flickered again. Cecil rolled over in his spot, a bloody hand reaching up to grip the edge of the mirror by him to push himself up. He glanced up, catching his own gaze. His fingers left bloody imprints smearing down the shiny glass surface.

Simone glanced up to catch Cecil Palmer staring into his own reflection. She could hear the loud screeches as the librarian began pounding on the aluminum walls. She could hear the static building up next to her head like a fly swarming around her ear, growing louder and louder. A swarm.

“Cecil,” she said, because from the way he looked, she knew he heard it too. All the other voices in the background suddenly sounded like they were speaking from underwater. they sounded so far away. Her own voice sounded far. All she could see through her right eye was static, and all the images in her left eye were blurring around the edges.

That’s when she heard it. Cecil didn’t, from what Simone could tell. He was too far gone, but Simone could hear it. The quietest voice from behind the static. Earl’s voice. Yelling. From outside the walls.

Then there was nothing at all.

…

…

...

And then there was a whole lot. 

Simone was standing behind her desk, at her chalkboard. There was an equation on the board in front of her, and when she turned, her classroom was in its usual order and full of students. 

She was just fighting a librarian in a warehouse. She had just been laying on the ground, watching a crying Cecil Palmer do… _Something_. And now here she was. The vision in her left eye was gone, but was just playing this annoying sensation that she could only describe as buzzing. She could once again see normally out of her right eye.

“Woah,” one of the students blurted out, gawking at Simone. “Dr. Rigs, what happened to your eye?” They inquired, leaning in a bit to get a better look. 

Simone did not know what to do. She screamed. This startled the young adults around her, but none of them did anything. She collapsed into her chair, looking around and feeling sick to her stomach. 

“I… It was all real. It _had_ to be.” She muttered to herself, placing her hands over her face and shaking her head over and over again. 

Simone Rigadeau had no idea what was going on, and neither did her students. Who all began to file out of the classroom. Soon enough other teachers had seemed to wander from their own classrooms at the reports of Simone’s breakdown to go see her. 

Simone caught sight of Professor Chelsea Dubinski right away, along with Professor Ibrahim al-Anizi. Their faces flashed just as confused as the others did when Simone spoke.

“You were _there_ ,” Simone insisted, gripping Chelsea’s hands desperately. Chelsea looked scared and confused. Nobody believed her. 

“Maybe we should get her something to drink,” Chelsea said, moving to pull Simone along with her. The group followed Simone to the staff break room, and while Simone refused to let go of Chelsea, the rest of the staff dispersed back to their own classrooms. 

“What day is it?” Simone finally asked, her voice hoarse and her hands shaking around the water bottle she had been handed.

Chelsea was offput by the question for a moment. “Wednesday.” She replied.

“No,” Simone shook her head, looking up and meeting the other’s worried gaze. “I mean… What date? What month? What _year_?”

Chelsea stared at Simone for a long moment in disbelief, before finally sighing. “It’s December 13th, 1983. Simone did you hit your head or something?” She knelt down in front of the other doctor, touching Simone’s knees gently. “Did you maybe… Get re-educated recently?”

“No,” Simone said, but then realized she wasn’t entirely sure about that. But it was December. Steve Carlsberg had thought it was December. The time had really passed. “I… I…” She stopped, blinking a few times. Something was happening in her left eye, which had been buzzing up until now.

“I’m going to go get Dr. Galleti,” Chelsea finally said, but Simone was too distracted to realize that she even left.

Suddenly Simone could see through her left eye again, and she was back in the warehouse. Steve was laying by her, looking at her notes, like they had been. Except Earl wasn’t with them. She glanced up, and Earl was curled up with Cecil. They were both fast asleep. In her mind she remembered a reality in which Earl Harlan did not go to sleep when Cecil did, and a reality in which he did. She heard the movement of the coyote outside, but other than Steve glancing up along with her, neither of them did anything.

“Should I do something about that?” Steve inquired, unsure if he should try to kill it.

Simone could see him through her left eye, and the break room through her right. She focused on the break room for a moment, and moved her arm. Her arm did not move in the reality in which Steve was. She focused on that one, and moved her arm. It did not move in the other reality. “What the fuck?” 

“What?” Steve inquired, looking confused at Simone who was beyond bewildered. 

Simone looked to him, and she knew what to say, and didn’t know what to say all at once. She tried to move her mouth but she couldn’t. She couldn’t say what she wanted to say. She couldn’t say that Earl died. Or didn’t die. She wasn’t sure. He _had_ been dead. All that blood. But he yelled. She couldn’t say that a librarian was going to show up, either. And she had no idea how to explain the split reality thing.

Split realities. Was that… What was happening? She couldn’t be sure.

She got up and went back to her room. She didn’t wait for anyone to come back. She just got up and left. She told Steve in the other universe to go to bed, and crawled back to her own cot to appear asleep. Or fall asleep. She wasn’t sure how that worked yet.

She got into her classroom and took out the phonebook, looking through numbers for a long moment before dialing one on her landline and holding the phone shakily to her ear. 

“Night Vale Community Radio station. This is Leslie speaking.” A voice replied on the other line, and Simone didn’t really know it.

“I need to speak to Cecil Palmer.” Simone didn’t mean for her voice to shake the way it did.

“May I ask who’s calling?” Leslie inquired, and Simone tried to shove down her annoyance which was mostly due to impatience.

“Dr. Simone Rigadeau. I am a professor at the community college.” 

“Alright,” Leslie replied, sounding as chipper as ever. “Let me just patch you through!” After a second music began to play and Simone waited for a solid minute before it cut off.

“You’ve reached Cecil Palmer,” Cecil’s voice was as beautiful and as welcoming as ever.

“What happened?” Simone didn’t mean to start with this question, but it was the first thing to come to mind. It was vague, though. “I mean. No that’s what I meant. What the hell happened?”

“Um,” Cecil replied for a moment. “Simone, I am not positive I know what you mean. I know that there was some odd colors in the sky this morning and some hooded children overran a day care center? Is that what you meant?”

“Cecil,” Simone said firmly, annoyance leaking into her voice. “Did you see the static?”

The other line was silent for a long moment. “How do you know about that?” His voice sounded accusing, but underneath that, a little frightened.

“I’m going to figure it out.”

“I see static sometimes. There’s nothing else to it.” Cecil insisted, and Simone could imagine the face he was making. 

“Cecil, things do not happen without a reason. It’s basic cause and effect.” Simone insisted. She could hear knocking on her classroom door, but she had locked it. “I’m… I’m living split realities, Cecil. I’m living partially in world where everything ended and it’s just you and I and a couple others and… And something happened and everything did the static thing and suddenly I am partially here and partially stuck in a world where everything ended.” The more Simone talked, the more she realized how absolutely ridiculous this sounded. Maybe none of it was true. Maybe she was hallucinating it all. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe she was dead. 

“Simone…” Cecil’s voice trailed off, going quiet. Simone could still hear knocking at her classroom door, and Dr. Galleti asking to be let in. The sentient rocks crawled around in their cages.

“I’m… This is too real,” Simone finally declared. She nodded her head, more so to convince herself than to convince Cecil. “I am going to figure out what’s going on. I’m a scientist.”

_______________________________________________________

It was December. December 29th, 1983. Simone was still continuing to live her life split between two realities, and she wasn’t any closer to an answer. In one reality Earl never died, and nobody remembered the librarian. They all insisted she had dreamt the whole thing. And in another, everyone thought she was crazy. She had told her boss she was shutting down her program, and instead was spending all of her time just trying to sort out her life. Living two lives at once was very time consuming. 

She turned on the radio for the first time since she had gotten back. If anything, she had spent all of her time avoiding anywhere she could hear that awful static noise. But she was craving Cecil’s soothing vocals to lull the stress away. 

The weather broadcast was coming to a close, and Simone sighed softly as she listened to the music fade out and Cecil’s voice take over.

“By all accounts, this is looking to be a good year! At least as good as 1983 has been!” He started, sounding wonderfully enthusiastic. “Josie Ortiz would like me to remind everyone that this Thursday, she is holding a benefit for the Old Opera House. It will be a lavish evening, with everything you would expect from a fancy night out, like a salad bar. Tickets are one hundred dollars and are not for sale to the likes of you.”

Simone hummed softly as she let Cecil’s voice wash over her, slowing her heartbeat to a calm thumping in her chest. At least until she heard her name, and she let her eyes open in curiousity.

“In other news: Simone Rigadeau, professor of Earth Sciences at the Night Vale Community College, says that her reality has split, that she is experiencing another history happening now. A history in which all of this ends. She is shutting down the Earth Sciences program in order to devote herself fully to understanding what has happened to her shattered mind, and this ended – but yet also _not_ ended – world. Well, best of luck in your new career, Simone!”

Simone let out a loud sigh, seeing the radio through one eye and Cecil through the other. He was sipping at a canteen, and using his free hand to hold Earl’s. They were both okay, and that was wrong. Something had gone wrong. 

She had left her job, despite loving it. She had given up on her life to try and figure out exactly what this static was. She wanted to know why she was living split realities, and why the other reality changed, and if that could happen here as well. Her life could wait.

She was a human second, and a scientist first, afterall.

_________________________________________________________

The year was 2016, and Simone Rigadeau was very tired. She was behind the wheel of a old tan Ford, and she watched as she passed the radio station. It was still too early for Cecil’s show, so she didn’t turn on her car radio. The car played too much static anyway. It was old, and belonged to her late parents. 

The year was 2016, and Simone Rigadeau was still thirty-three years old. She was stuck, forever unchanging. She sat in her car, being thirty-three, and driving down the road towards Marvin Drive. 

The year was 2016, and Simone’s left ear picked up on the soft hum of static. She could hear it slowly getting louder, as the world through her left eye began to fuzz around the edges. Her hands shook on her steering wheel, and she didn’t have time to swerve enough before she heard the crunch of metal and collided with part of a red Dodge. 

The year was 2016, and Simone knew her reality was going to change. It _always_ did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> earl harlan death toll: 2(?)
> 
> im gonna use the hell out of that major character death warning, guys. i would apologize except im not sorry at all.


	4. Happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being the desert otherworld all alone for over a year, Kevin is not handling himself too well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone say hello to kevin. hes lonely. pls talk to him.
> 
> also like theres a weather this chapter! the link will be when kevin takes you to the weather, and like slight warning the song mentions cannibalism

“Sunlight is shining through the cracks in our universe. It is _beautiful_ and terrifying and glorious. The light is so bright it is _blinding_. The great unraveling will not be long, now. Welcome to Desert Bluffs!” 

“Well, it seems that our favorite masked army has finally returned, Desert Bluffs! They’re a little bloodier than before, but that’s not a _bad_ thing! They won! They have returned carrying limbs which may or may not belong to them! Who knows?” Kevin’s lips moved as he spoke, almost touching the pop filter in front of him. His fingers were wrapped around the blood-crusted neck of his microphone, which sat on his mess of a desk.

“Unfortunately the members of our friendly local masked army do not own cellphones! I wanted to get a statement from one of them about their most recent battle. Why, I’d send Intern Vanessa to do it but we are still understaffed so she is working as my producer, currently. And her doppelganger is somewhere around here! See listeners, Vanessa and her double are head of marketing and advertisement and all of those other things needed to run a community radio station! So they both work _very_ busy jobs! They are both just so productive!”

“I rather wish that roller coaster Doug and Alisha built about a year ago now would stop. I mean, don’t get me wrong Desert Bluffs, I am ecstatic that the people riding it have been having so much fun. I would just… Really like to have some extra hands around here is all! It is so pesky just having two hands! Don’t you agree? I could get so much done if I had say… Eight hands! Why, what a great thing having eight hands would be!”

Kevin mused this over for a moment. He just pictured himself with eight arms, and how many things he could carry and work on all at once! Why, what a wonderful concept. The scientists back at Strex could’ve really done something-- Kevin forced that line of thinking to stop. He didn’t want to think about Strex. He didn’t want to think about science.

“Anyway listeners,” he said again after a moment, readjusting in his seat and crushing the sad feelings with overwhelming happiness. “There is still plenty of ad space available here at the station! Despite having been running for over a year now, our little station here in Desert Bluffs still hasn’t had _any_ ads to run. We’re selling the air time really cheap now, too. So come on down to the station! We would love to hear about your products!” Except Kevin knew that nobody was going to show up. There weren’t any products to sell here. 

“A quick look at the community calendar tells me that well… There isn’t much going on this week! Monday through Sunday, the roller coaster will continue to run, the sun will continue to shine, the local army of masked people will continue to fight and I… I’ll continue to broadcast. Well,” Kevin tried to force the cheer into his voice, but it was becoming more and more of a chore. “It’ll be exactly like last week. And the week before. And the weeks before that...” He sort of let his hands drop to his lap, touching his knees. “Nothing productive ever happens around here…”

“Kevin,” a voice came through his headphones, and he looked up at Intern Vanessa who was making a motion with her hands from behind the glass window that led to the producer's booth. He watched her for a long moment as she touched the corners of her mouth and pushed them up into a smile. “Be _happy_ , Kevin. You deserve to be oh so happy!”

The words hit Kevin hard, and he wasn’t quite sure how to process them. Did he really deserve to be happy? He had thought everyone deserved to be happy, but only if they could be productive. Kevin wasn’t productive at all. It wasn’t that he didn’t try! He tried so hard but.. It was just so hard here. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to be productive here. 

“Listeners,” Kevin finally managed. “I… I apologize for that dead air back there!” He forced a smile, sitting up straight in his seat. “We were having some technical difficulties, but it’s all alright now!”

He looked to the blood soaked papers in front of him, and realized that they were all blank anyway. There was no news to report. Well, there was always weather. Yes, it was always hot. And always sunny. But sometimes there was wind.

“Well listeners, of my dear, dear home of Desert Bluffs. I think it’s time I took you all to the [weather](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kQ-0bBkMIY).” Kevin hit the button on his soundboard, and scooted back from his desk. He stood up, and stared down his intern from where she sat behind the glass.

“Kevin?” She said, speaking into her headset. Kevin could hear her through his headphones and he watched her for a long moment.

“Vanessa,” he quipped in his usual cheerful tone. “Do you really think I deserve to be happy?”

“Well, of course--”

“But _why_?” Kevin tilted his head, smile still in place. “Why do _I_ deserve to be happy, Vanessa? What have I done to deserve such a thing? All I ever do is sit in this chair and repeat the same things over and over again!” 

“You’re doing your job, Kevin.”

“Like hell I am!” His voice was raised now, staring his intern down with venom in his gaze. The smile hadn’t left his features yet. “There is nothing to report! I am not making anything happen! Before I had an audience, Vanessa. I had people to inform! My job had a purpose! _I_ had a purpose! I wasn’t _useless_ like I am now! Who is even listening to me, Vanessa?”

Off in the desert somewhere, the masked army was sitting around and tending to each other's wounds. In the background played the radio Carlos had built while he was here, and the weather had just faded out and was replaced with Kevin’s screaming.

“I’m listening to you, Kevin!” Vanessa insisted, but she didn’t look frightened. She looked annoyed. Like Kevin was a child throwing _another_ tantrum. 

“You don’t count, Vanessa.” Kevin growled, the smile on his face faltering for a moment. “It was my job to inform people of all of the bad things that were going to happen to them! That way when it’s all over they can be _happy_ Vanessa! Bad things happen, people get sad! And then, they get _productive_ Vanessa! They fix the problem, and then everyone is happy again! That’s how it is supposed to work!” 

“That is how it works, Kevin.” Intern Vanessa’s smile was odd now. Kevin did not like it.

“And that’s the problem!” Kevin’s voice cracked as he reached a louder octave. “Because bad things happened to me, Vanessa. And I got really, _really_ sad! I _am_ so sad! And. And I need to be productive and fix things Vanessa. I need to make myself not be sad anymore, but I _can’t_. I’m stuck like this.” There were tears now. Kevin didn’t like to cry. Crying didn’t help him. It didn’t fix anything. It wasn’t productive.

“Kevin, you’re doing everything you can while you’re here.” Intern Vanessa reassured the radio host, expression melting from annoyed to concerned. It was a motherly sort of concern. Genuine, but full of pity. It felt degrading. 

“It’s not enough!” He screamed, moving to yank the microphone off his desk. The plug gave way, coming loose and chasing the microphone as Kevin launched it across the room. It slammed into the far wall, the pop filter falling off and the rest of it thunking hard against the ground. 

“Kevin, you are trying your hardest---”

“Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!” Kevin moved to grab his desk chair, hoisting it above his own head and tossing it hard. It shattered through the window of the producer’s booth and clattered to the floor. 

Vanessa stared at Kevin for a long moment. He had watched the chair pass right through her without causing any damage to her being. He didn’t know what to make of that, so he ignored it. Vanessa’s expression warped from something concerned to entirely disapproving. It made Kevin’s heart ache. 

“I don’t have the patience for you when you act like a little boy, Kevin.” Vanessa stood up, brushing herself off. “I will return when you stop acting like this.” And with that, Vanessa flickered for a moment before disappearing.

“No,” Kevin said, his voice suddenly very small. He stared at the empty space of his producer’s booth, and reached up to touch the weird substance leaking from his eyes. Why did he have to be so _sad_? “Vanessa, I’m sorry.” He pleaded, sinking to the ground and wiping the foreign tears off his face. “I didn’t mean to act like this I just… I don’t know what else to do.” His fingers knotted into his hair, was previously pulled back into a neat ponytail but was now looking rather sloppy. “I don’t know how to fix myself, Vanessa.”

She wasn’t coming back, but Kevin was desperate. If he kept talking. If he just said the right thing, he wouldn’t have to be alone anymore. He hated being alone. He was always so alone.

“I know what’s expected of me, Vanessa. I know what I expect of myself! I just… I can’t reach it. I want to be so productive. I want to accomplish things but I just… I can’t, Vanessa! Strex told me I had all this potential, and I really, _really_ thought I did but… I don’t… It’s all gone and I can’t do anything right anymore…” Kevin was laying on his side on the floor of his station, now. He could smell the coppery scent of blood in his nostrils, as well as see the bones of small lizards and rodents scattered about the floor underneath his desk. His vision was blurry, and he was so, so tired suddenly.

He didn’t want to sleep. Sleep was a nice break from life, but it wasn’t productive. Nothing he did anymore was productive. He let out a shaky breath as his eyes slid shut and he tried to lull himself to a state of slumber.

Waking up uncomfortable and hazy, Kevin rolled over onto his back and stared at the roof of his studio. It was so hot in the recording booth, and sweat made his clothes stick to his skin. He finally pushed up off the ground and for a moment he wondered if it was still light outside. Of course it was. It never stopped being light outside. The sun here worked very hard.

Wobbling his way to his feet, he glanced over and noticed Vanessa’s booth was still empty. He sighed, and headed over to shakily pick up the microphone and pop filter off the floor and place them back on his desk. The microphone didn’t look too badly damaged, but the pop filter was wrecked. He frowned deeply, but decided he might be able to find the materials to make a new one. That would be productive. He liked that. 

So that’s what he would do. Plus maybe find something to eat. He hadn’t eaten anything in a very long time, considering he couldn’t technically starve in the desert otherworld--- Desert Bluffs. Couldn’t starve in Desert Bluffs. That’s what Kevin meant. The name was important. What was a home without a name?

Kevin slowly made his way out of the studio, squinting against the blaring sun that reminded him an awful lot of a Smiling God. He was useless to the Smiling God now, though. He was the only one around to control, but there was nothing productive to do in this desert. Desert Bluffs was Kevin’s home. It was _not_ the Smiling God’s.

Walking along, the radio host could see the masked army coming up on his left. It didn’t take him very long to reach them, and they were definitely bloody. Kevin stared for a long moment, his fingers quivering at his sides. “H-hi Doug,” he finally managed, giving a wave.

Doug glanced up from his spot in the sand where he sat with his legs crossed. Alisha was next to him, and they were patching up Doug’s knee. The giant dog was seated next to Alisha, panting heavily and staring at Kevin. Doug simply nodded in reply. They masked army did not talk much to Kevin. They had talked a lot to Carlos. Kevin thought about this for a moment, but it made him sad so he stopped.

“How did the fight go?” Kevin offered up next, approaching a little closer. Alisha’s dog growled at him, and his smile disappeared completely at this. He did not move from his spot placed firmly in the sand. Once he knew the dog wasn’t going to stand, he slowly lowered himself to sit on the tan ground.

Doug could not speak quietly. It was very hard for those in the masked army to control their volume, so they mostly yelled a whole lot. His loud volume startled Kevin. “GOOD.” Doug replied, nodding his large head for a moment. “WE WON.”

Kevin nodded, his eyes having left Doug’s mask to examine the blood running down his leg and on his partner’s hands. Nng. Kevin swallowed the lump in his throat and looked to Alisha, staring at them for a long moment. “Were there any casualties?”

“AREN’T THERE ALWAYS?” Alisha replied, wrapping bandages made from the skin of some animal around Doug’s knee. They hummed as they did this. It did not sound like humming. It sounded like buzzing.

“That is true!” Kevin nodded his head. His smile had returned, and it was as wide as ever. “If I have ever been taught anything, it is that sometimes people die. But it’s not always for bad reasons! People can die doing something _good_. They can die being…” Productive. Kevin made a face, and stared at the sand.

“KEVIN,” Doug finally began after a hesitant moment. “ON THE RADIO EARLIER…”

“Oh!” Kevin made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth, hands coming up to cover the lower half of his face in horror. “You guys heard that? Gosh, it was just me being silly. I just haven’t been putting in one hundred and ten percent lately, you know! That was just. So _unprofessional_ of me! Tomorrow’s broadcast will be much better.”

Doug and Alisha both wore masks that covered their expressions, so Kevin was not entirely sure how they had taken his excuses. They went back to looking at Doug’s knee after a moment, and Kevin decided this was his cue to leave. He stood, brushing sand off himself. The dog growled, and Kevin simply smiled at it before heading off in the other direction. It was cute, but he was not about to mess with a car-sized poodle. 

He could hear screaming now, and could clearly make out the roller coaster ahead. Along with the spa and Carlos’ old lab. He stepped onto the stone walkway one of the army members had made and just sort of stared at the roller coaster for a long moment. It had a ninety degree drop from about 600 feet in the air, and also went through some fire upside down. Kevin thought the people on it must be having such a great time. And they were still screaming, even after a whole year! How impressive.

This only held his attention for a few more minutes, before Kevin sighed and couldn’t fight his gaze away from the lab anymore. He had only visited it a couple of times since Carlos had left, but he never stayed more than a couple seconds. He had no business being there, but then again, it didn’t belong to anyone anymore. Carlos thought that he belonged in Night Vale, and this lab was in Desert Bluffs. This was Kevin’s home.

He made his way into the lab, gazing around at the mess. After all of Carlos’ research got wrecked, he never really took the time to clean up. He just grabbed what he could and left. His broken computer still laid out on the ground, and most of his blood soaked composition notebooks still laid open on his desk. The blood had gone brown by now, drying and smelling sour. 

Kevin wandered over to Carlos’ desk and took a seat. He had sat in this chair before, but it had been a long time. He idly remembered an older conversation. 

_“It’s just so fascinating,” Carlos muttered as he stood by the dry erase board Alisha had made for him out of rocks, cactus needles, and coyote pelts. He scribbled some small writing on its surface as he continued to speak. “We unplugged the power going to the roller coaster and it just keeps going. It’s just like our phones, Kevin! If I can figure out just what powers everything in this desert… It’s like how the sun never stops shining! It all has to be connected somehow…” He mused, turning to glance at the other. Kevin had been sitting behind his desk, idly spinning in his chair. His back was to Carlos now, and Carlos watched the other reach up and undo his ponytail._

_Kevin had been displeased with how loose it had become, and was set on redoing it. Carlos for a long moment had almost mistaken him for Cecil, but did not say this. He knew Kevin and Cecil were very different people, and did not want to be mistaken for one another._

_“That is just so interesting, Carlos!” Kevin chimed as he brushed out his hair with his fingers, spinning back around to watch the other. “This desert seems to be working so hard to keep it always bright and sunny here and keep all of our electronics powered! Why, if I could, I’d like to thank the desert for working so hard.”_

_“...Well,” Carlos said after a moment, brows furrowing. “The desert isn’t actually alive, Kevin. So you really can’t thank it. It’s more like… There’s some unseen energy here, and it’s fueling everything.”_

_“Are you sure about that?” Kevin inquired, brushing all of his hair back and yanking it tight, before rewrapping the hair tie around the base of a fresh ponytail. “I mean. How could you ever be sure that everything you believe to be inanimate doesn’t have a soul inside of it? A soul could be trapped in these things, Carlos. Unable to speak. Unable to act. Just… Trapped. How truly awful that would be. Could you imagine, Carlos? Not being able to move or speak. Just left to your own thoughts. Goodness, I must go thank the desert now. Imagine how lonely it could be.”_

_Carlos simply stared at Kevin for a long moment, before turning to look back at his board. “...Right…” He finally managed, not entirely sure what else he could say._

Kevin gave the chair a little spin, but it was stiff with misuse. He was no longer smiling. His frown deepened in his expression as he leaned forward and tried to make out writing on Carlos’ notebooks. He could see his handwriting vaguely. He could remember the letter. He frowned, touching his pocket and listening to the paper crumple beneath the pressure. 

Why couldn’t he just be happy?

Kevin pushed up from the desk, just sort of wandering around the lab to keep his mind busy. He picked up a beaker, and set it back down after he noticed he could see his reflection in the shiny surface. He sighed, watching the light glint off the top of a test tube and reaching over to finger along the tube’s edges in slow circles.

That’s when he saw static. He stumbled back, and hissed to himself. Not this again. It made his head hurt so very bad every time this happened. The static flickered in his vision, causing the things around him become fuzzy. He fumbled backwards, foot catching on a stray object and sending Kevin falling onto his backside. He gripped the tabletop above him, face contorting as the static grew louder and louder in his ears. It hurt so bad. 

Kevin slid under the protection of the table, which was quickly fading from his vision. Everything was turning into specs of grayscale, and soon enough he could only make out his own blurry outline. He put his hands over his eyes, curling up where he laid on the seemingly nonexistent floor. 

And after what felt like a lifetime, this all began to fade. The static slowly got quieter, and the world faded back into Kevin’s line of sight. He didn’t move from underneath the desk for a long, long time.

It was time to take for granted the fact that his phone had great cellular service in this desert otherworld again. 

_______________________________________________________

Somewhere in another desert, far but no so far from Desert Bluffs, another radio host sat down on the couch in his home. His phone had been neglected for quite a while, after a long day. His boyfriend had put the son of his best friend to bed just a few minutes ago, and had retired himself for the night. This radio host was not very tired, though.

Cecil unlocked his cell phone, noticing he had notifications he hadn’t attended to. He sighed deeply, opening his messages and clicking the older of the two first. 

It was from Kevin.

[Hey there, friend. I know we haven’t talked in a long, long time! I just had a question I wanted to ask you. Call me, would you? It has to do with the static.]

And another from Simone.

[It’s happened again, Cecil. We can’t avoid this forever. Call me.]

Cecil Palmer stared at his phone for a long moment, before locking it and setting it face down on the table in front of him. He had just lost any hope of sleeping that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo finally! so all four of our main characters have been introduced and given a nice setting and little background, so i can finally start getting into the meat of this story


	5. Experiences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cecil makes some important phone calls and also tries to be a good babysitter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for the delay! my aunt was in the hospital for a week and i was with her almost constantly and also relatively sleep deprived so it was not ideal writing circumstance. the next chapter of this is over halfway done so hopefully i can get that posted by early next week if not sooner. but to be fair, this chapter includes a cute puppy and also some weird shit with kevin, so that probably makes up for the wait.

Despite the fact that their last few interactions hadn’t been entirely awful, Cecil was still dreading the idea of sitting down and calling Kevin. Roger was asleep on the pull-out couch in the living room, so Cecil crossed through the hanging door beads into the kitchen and took a seat at the small dining table. He pulled out his phone, and finally decided that in this situation Simone was the lesser of two evils. He checked his watch, the one Carlos had given to him on their one month anniversary, and it said it was 11:39PM. Simone was _probably_ awake..

Cecil hit the call button before he could chicken out, and put the phone to his ear. It didn’t even have a chance to fully ring once before Simone picked up on the other end. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Cecil said, making a face and realizing that for once he really didn’t have much to say. “Did it happen after the car accident?” 

“Yes. Well, actually, I was seeing it before the car crash even happened. I was driving towards Martin Drive and my vision started flickering and I could hear the static and… I didn’t see the Dodge in time and I tried to swerve but I still clipped it and…”

“And everything was okay. I mean, sure, the static is weird.” Cecil couldn’t argue that it wasn’t. “I mean. Simone, why do you have to investigate the static? Shouldn’t you be focused on the whole, split reality thing?”

“Cecil, the two things are definitely connected. Now just… What do you remember from today? During your broadcast, did anything weird happen?”

“Well…” Cecil bit his lip, glancing around the room as if the right words to say were somewhere about the appliances. “I don’t remember starting the broadcast. I mean, I do, but… It’s super hazy, though. I… I suddenly felt like I had lost a good thirty to forty-five minutes of time in the middle of the broadcast. I was suddenly existing and the memories of all the time before me felt… Misplaced. I don’t know what happened.” He sighed, leaning down to rest his face in his free hand. “I’m at a loss, Simone. More so than I usually am.”

Simone was silent on the other end, and Cecil could imagine her bent over a piece of paper by a flashlight taking notes. “Were the memories immediate, or did you have to look for them?”

“I had to look for them,” Cecil admitted, glancing up at the noise he heard. “I always have to look for them. And um…” He paused, watching the small cheagle duck past the door beads and into the kitchen. It’s little nails clicked on the tiled floor, and Cecil reached down to fluff the small dog's ears. “Hey Tessie sweetheart,” he cooed softly.

“Did you just call me sweetheart?” Simone inquired, and made the most annoyed face. Cecil couldn’t see this, but he could imagine it.

“Oh, no,” Cecil laughed softly, moving to scoop a hand under the small dog and pulling it up into his lap. It settled there, just watching him through large orange eyes. Four of them, to be exact. “It’s just Tesla.”

“...Nikola Tesla?”

“Yes. That’s our dog’s name.”

“Oh my god. Carlos is such a nerd.” Simone huffed, and Cecil imagined her shaking her head. “You are living two very different lives, Cecil.”

Cecil had always been rather curious about his other self that Simone referenced a lot when speaking to him, but had also always been afraid to ask. “What… Is my other life like? Am I okay?”

“Yeah, you’re okay.” Simone replied, her voice losing the usual straightforwardness it always held. She was talking to a friend now, and not someone who was just part of her experiment. “You’re… Is it weird to say that you’re happy? Not all the time obviously, and life is rough but… Overall, I think you are kind of happy.”

“Really?” Cecil smiled at this, reaching up to tuck his hair behind his ear and toy with his left earring for a moment. “I mean, how did the world ending go? What is Night Vale like now?”

“Well, as I’ve said it was a nuclear weapon, and probably hit towards the center of town. So… A lot of the town is destroyed. The radiation has worn off some since then, so we can wander a bit more inward… A couple weeks ago we went to your old apartment, and it was… Well, really dusty and a little messy but a lot of your things were still relatively okay. Like the stuff in your closet. You sat down with me on the floor and we went through one of your old photo albums and there were a lot of pictures of you and Abby and… It was… Nice. You cried. I uh… I held you for a while.”

Cecil listened to Simone was she explained the story, and tried to imagine himself in his old apartment. It was full of dust, and the windows were broken out, and things were scattered about the floor. The stuff in his closet was, as she said, relatively okay. He knew the exact photo album they were going through. It sat in the hall closet of his and Carlos’ apartment. He could imagine Simone wrapping her arms around him and petting his hair back and despite being odd, it was nice.

“Are we good friends, Simone?” 

“Yeah,” the scientist replied without skipping a beat. “We’re… Really good friends, Cecil. You ask about my work and I tell you stories about what your life is like over here. I told you about Carlos, your handsome scientist boyfriend with nice hair, and you laughed at me and pried for details while your boyfriend made faces in the background. It was just, so funny. He didn’t strike me as the jealous type, either.”

“Boyfriend?” Cecil inquired, his hand resting on Tesla’s back and fluffing along his fur. “Who’s my boyfriend? Anyone I know?”

“Oh yeah, you guys have known eachother for years actually.” Simone hummed a bit, seeming to actually be enjoying the conversation. Cecil did not know this, but Simone didn’t speak to many people at all in his reality. She wasn’t lonely, but she liked Cecil quite a lot. “It’s Earl. Earl Harlan.”

“Oh my god,” Cecil blurted out before he could really stop himself, deadpanning for a long moment. “Earl? Like, redheaded freckled Earl Harlan?”

“The one and only,” Simone commented, chuckling a bit. “He’s still nineteen here, though. He’s always nineteen. I’m always thirty-three. It’s a strange world.”

“Yeah, age is just… Odd.” Cecil had been aging at an incredibly slow rate for hundreds of years. “But… I’m with Earl? Like, romantically? I mean, he was my best friend and we did some kinda romantic stuff back in the day and all but now we’re just friends. His son is actually sleeping in my living room as we speak because he’s in the hospital.”

“...Was he in the crash today?” Simone had been trying to catch names of the other victims in the crash, but nobody took her seriously enough to try and tell her. 

“Yeah. The Dodge ran him off the road into a telephone pole. He’s going to be in the hospital all night but he’s just got some head trauma.” Cecil fluffed Tesla’s ears, watching the dog peek an eye open at him. 

“That’s it!” Cecil could almost hear the light bulb flickering on above Simone’s head, but he was still confused. She had come to some conclusion that he had not. “Earl must have died.”

“What? No, he’s in the hospital--”

“He died in that car crash and things rewrote themselves. But _how_? And why Earl… I mean, this doesn’t really happen often but the first time I saw it it was because Earl had.. Died? Or not died? He _was_ dead and then he wasn’t and… That’s happened several times. Not the static but… Earl being dead and then not being dead.”

Cecil didn’t know what to do with Simone’s nonsense rambling, much less with the whole Earl having died thing. Earl didn’t die. Yes, he got hurt. But that was it…

Cecil’s phone buzzed, interrupting his thoughts. It was Kevin again.

[Cecil, we cannot get anything done if you are ignoring me.]

Cecil made a face but ignored the text, placing the phone back against his ear. “Simone, it’s getting late.”

“Is it?” She inquired, and Cecil imagined her looking to a clock. “My clock only says it’s ten-thirty.” 

“My watch says twelve-thirty.” Cecil gave the timepiece a glance, watching the light glint off of it. Tesla stirred in his lap.

“Oh wow, okay.” Simone sighed, and Cecil heard her moving around. “Goodnight Cecil.”

“Goodnight, Simone. Goodnight.” Cecil hummed and hit the end button, before relaxing in his seat. The house was quiet, and Cecil knew Carlos must be out like a light in bed. Roger was probably asleep as well. “Hey Tessie you gotta move,” Cecil said softly, picking up the small dog and relocating him to the floor. He stood and headed over to the liquor cabinet and poured himself what was definitely more than a jigger’s worth of Armagnac. He swirled the liquid around in his cup before taking a sip and sighing. He shouldn’t be drinking this late, but he needed a little alcohol to cool his nerves after a day like this. Plus he’d have to call Kevin sooner or later.

Cecil turned off the main light and turned on the smaller one overtop the kitchen sink, and sat back down at the dining table. He reread Kevin’s earlier text several times before hitting a call button.

“Oh there you are!” Kevin’s voice filled Cecil’s ears and Cecil took another long sip. “Well okay, it’s time to talk. Now I know you must know about the static by now, Cecil.”

“Yes Kevin, I certainly know about the static even if I have never experienced it myself.” Cecil watched Tesla wander around the kitchen floor in search of a nice spot to lay. Cecil’s feet won this search, and Cecil couldn’t fight off a smile despite the conversation.

“Wait,” Kevin said, pausing for a moment. “You.. Have never felt the static? But I could have sworn… It was so strong today and this isn’t the first time either and... “

“I have a friend who sees it, and… I have had experiences with it.” Cecil drained the rest of the cup in one gulp and set it down on the table. “I know you want answers from me Kevin but I don’t have any. If anything I’m just as confused as you are. Sometimes the static happens and it changes things and I don’t remember the changes and neither does my friend but she’s a scientist and she’s figuring it out.”

“I want to talk to her.” It was firm, and Cecil knew he wasn’t going to be able to shake Kevin’s request off.

“I’d… I’d have to ask her if that is alright.”

“Just give me her number.” Kevin insisted, and Cecil could hear a creaking noise in the background and some tapping. “I just… Cecil, I need something. I need anything at this point.”

“Kevin… What’s it like over there in the desert? Honestly?” Cecil inquired, hearing the creak of the pullout bed in the next room. He assumed Roger was rolling over. 

“Desert Bluffs,” Kevin corrected, before continuing. “And it’s… Sunny. And the army here is interesting and… I just wish we had a higher population, you know! Things are much more fun when there are lots of people to enjoy them with.”

“People do make a town,” Cecil admitted, and noted that the conversation felt oddly normal for the two of them. He liked it, though. 

“No they don’t,” Kevin replied, but he didn’t sound entirely convinced of this himself. He was silent for a long moment, and Cecil almost assumed he had lost signal when Kevin spoke up again. “How is Carlos doing?”

“Oh he’s doing well!” This was a topic Cecil could talk to death, if being entirely honest. “He’s asleep right now. It’s night here. We had a sort of exciting day and one of my friends is in the hospital but Carlos has just been my rock.”

“That’s… That’s really great, Cecil. I’m glad he’s happy.” Kevin didn’t sound so glad about this, but Cecil didn’t even notice. “Carlos is very smart.” He said this, and it wasn’t really a question.

“Yes. That he is.” Cecil agreed wholeheartedly, grinning a bit and glancing down at the dog wiggling on his feet. “Sometimes I have no idea what he’s talking about but I just… Really love to listen to him talk, you know? He says so many smart things and I’m not dumb or anything, but I just… Don’t always understand, y’know?? But he is usually too cute when he’s rambling about science to actually interrupt. Like I know everyone says I talk too much but man, the second you get Carlos going about science you cannot calm that boy down! He is just too precious. Going on and on about like… Isotopes or something.”

“What is an isotope?” Kevin inquired, his voice still sounding a little sad. Cecil thought he sounded nice when he was sad. Kevin deserved to be sad sometimes. Not in a mean way, but in a way that meant Kevin wasn’t always forcing himself to be happy. Everyone deserved to be allowed to be sad sometimes.

“I think it’s like a kind of pasta?” Cecil honestly had no idea.

“How is pasta scientific?” Cecil could imagine Kevin furrowing his brows in confusion, and Cecil found himself making a very similar expression.

“I don’t know. Carlos really likes pasta, though. So it’s probably scientific one way or another.” Cecil shrugged and thought about the wheat-free pasta in the cabinet for a long moment. Then he realized he was still hungry.

The phone line was rather silent for a few moments, so Cecil took this opportunity to get up and retrieve a takeout container from the fridge and dig a fork into the chow mein in the container. He chewed on it idly as he waited for Kevin to say something interesting. 

“What happened to your friend in the hospital?” Kevin finally came up with.

“Oh well he was in a bit of a car accident,” Cecil mumbled between bites. “He’s got some head trauma but nothing too serious. They’ll probably let him go tomorrow, so for the night his son is staying with us.” At this, Kevin inquired which friend it was. Cecil didn’t see the harm in answering. “Oh you won’t know him but his name is Earl--”

“Harlan.”

Cecil paused for a long moment, making a face. Earl had been dragged to another dimension by those mute children before the Strex thing, and he hadn’t returned to town until after it was all over. “How do you know that?”

“Does he have red hair?” Kevin sounded very confused.

“Yeah he does but… Kevin, how do you know Earl? He wasn’t even in town when you were!” The last thing Cecil needed was another mystery on his hands. 

“I don’t know,” Kevin admitted after a moment, sighing loudly. “I just do. I can picture what he looks like perfectly in my mind except… No, no, that can’t be right.”

“What?”

“Well, he’s probably much older than I am imagining him. The boy I’m picturing is in his teens at the latest.” Kevin shuffled around some papers, or at least that’s what it sounded like to Cecil.

“I mean he’s around forty now but he was nineteen for a _very_ long time.” Cecil’s frown deepened, and he wondered what this meant. But like most things, he assumed he’d never know. “Tell me what you know about Earl.”

“He’s tall.” Kevin pointed out, and paused for a moment. “He also has a long neck? I--- Why do I know that this guy I’ve never met has a long neck? How odd.”

“Perhaps we’ll never know,” Cecil shrugged, sighing and taking another bite of food and lulling this over. “I wouldn’t fret too much over it. Sometimes we just aren’t meant to know things.”

“Hmm.” Kevin hummed for a moment. “That’s such a big difference between you and Carlos.” 

“What?”

“You accept that we can’t know all the answers, while Carlos seems to fight that. I guess that’s what scientists do. Pesky creatures, those scientists. I guess they aren’t all that bad, though. Carlos was very nice.” Kevin was silent for another moment. “Does he ever talk about me?”

Cecil was about to reply when he heard the front door open and shut. This deeply confused him, considering in Night Vale this could be anything. The Faceless Old Woman, the SSP officers who keep an eye on everyone, the government, a thief, an angry wolf… Honestly, there was just no way to know for sure. “Hello?” Cecil called out, and no one replied. “Kevin one second I just heard my front door open.” Cecil didn’t hang up the phone incase something bad happened. Kevin could contact someone. Anyone. 

Shoving his phone in his pocket, he grabbed a kitchen knife in hand and peeked out through the door beads. He didn’t see anything for a long moment as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Then he saw flickering in his vision.

“The boy left,” a woman’s voice answered, sighing a bit like she was bored. “He just got right on up and left. I can see him through Mrs. Preston’s peephole down the hall. He is taking the stairs down now.”

“Oh fuck,” Cecil made a face and nodded. “Thank you Faceless Old Woman! I should go follow him.” Cecil nodded and set down the knife before moving to follow the other out the front door. He shuddered at the rush of cold nighttime air once he managed to get outside but didn’t pause. 

“Alright. Well I am going to hide your boyfriend’s car keys now. And maybe alphabetize the spices in your cabinet. But not in the order of any alphabet you’ve ever heard of…” 

Cecil ignored the Faceless Old Woman as he started down the sidewalk, and placed his phone back to his ear. “Kevin, Earl’s son has sort of a sleepwalking problem and he’s wandering down the street right now. I have to follow him.”

“Oh, well…” Kevin seemed to not know what to do with this. “Does he do this often?”

“According to Earl he’s been doing this every night for well… Months now.” Cecil sighed, and was relieved when the boy was in sight. He didn’t get too close, but kept up quite well. He whispered to Kevin on the other end of the phone. “I have no idea what’s causing it or what he’s doing really. He doesn’t seem to be looking at anything. Just… Walking.”

“Well if he’s asleep he probably doesn’t even realize what he’s doing. Try waking him?” Kevin suggested, sounding a little irritable. Cecil had all but forgotten his earlier question.

“No, no. I don’t think you’re supposed to wake someone who is sleepwalking because they may get dangerous or stop existing or something.” Cecil wasn’t positive, but it was what he had always heard. “He’s not hurting anyone. Hell, he’s pausing before he crosses the street.”

Kevin didn’t reply on the other line so Cecil kept on following Roger for several more minutes before the boy started in a new direction and began heading back towards the house on another pathway. 

“Is everything okay?” Kevin’s voice was very quiet and Cecil almost thought he imagined him speaking.

“Yeah, we’re heading back to the house now. All is well.” Cecil nodded his head and watched Roger re-enter the apartment building. Cecil sighed in relief and followed the boy back upstairs. He didn’t bother staying hidden now, and once the boy crawled back into the pullout bed, he looked at Cecil. “Hey Roger,” Cecil spoke softly. “Want me to tuck you in?” Roger simply nodded, and Cecil tucked the phone against his shoulder as he tucked the young boy in and pet his hair back before heading back into the kitchen. 

“I don’t think my exciting day is meant to end.” Cecil sighed as he sunk into a chair, suddenly very tired. “I should probably get some sleep.”

“Oh okay,” Kevin said this as if he was sad.

Cecil paused for a moment, before sighing. “I’ll text you my friend’s number. Her name is Simone Rigadeau. Please be patient with her. She is lovely but very blunt.”

Kevin’s voice perked up at this. “Oh thank you Cecil! I will do my best not to agitate her. Oh it will be lovely, being able to discuss the static with someone. Plus a _scientist_ of all things. You know those scientists. Just won’t stop until they figure something out.”

“Yeah, they’re seemingly famous for that.” Cecil smiled, and after a moment realized he had sort of enjoyed this conversation with Kevin. How odd. “Okay Kevin, I think I’m going to retire for the night but… I hope you’re doing well and… Feel free to talk to me more often, if you want.” 

“I will be in touch Cecil. Definitely. Oh, this is just so exciting! Go get some shut eye! And… Tell Carlos I said hi, if you would.”

“I will do.” Cecil hummed and actually smiled. “Bye Kevin. Goodnight.” He hung up the phone and took a long, deep breath. He put the food away and returned the kitchen knife to the block and made his way back to the bedroom. He undressed and redressed in his usual pajamas before crawling into bed with a snoring Carlos. The other did not budge when Cecil wrapped his arms tightly around him, and this didn’t bother Cecil in the slightest. 

“Oh my darling Carlos,” Cecil hummed softly against the other’s neck. “Even in sleep you are such a source of comfort. I love you dearly.”

______________________________________________________________

Earl Harlan was lost and relatively confused. He was in the hospital, and apparently he was in a car accident. Apparently Cecil and Carlos had visited him and were babysitting… Roger? Yeah, Roger, that’s it. Earl felt bad for forgetting again for a moment.

“You experienced some head trauma,” said a doctor who was suddenly there at his side after not being there a moment before. “Of course some memory related problems are bound to occur.”

“ _Of course_.” Earl said, sounding exasperated. He sighed loudly and reached up to rub his eyes. “Is my son okay?”

“Yeah he was fine.” The doctor nodded, writing something on her clipboard with what looked like a carrot. No words were being left behind where she rubbed the tip of the carrot against the paper. “He didn’t even need stitches. Just some bandages. We gave him a note to get him off of school for the next couple of days, and we will write you one for work.”

“Okay,” Earl made a face and nodded. He heard his phone buzz and he glanced over to see it wrapped up in a large plastic ziploc bag with the rest of his things. “Can I have that?”

“Yeah,” the doctor replied, reaching over to open the bag and hand him the phone. Her hands were ice cold, and Earl tried not to wince. 

[Morning Earl! How are you feeling? Anyway, Cecil talked to Abby this morning and Steve is going to watch Roger for the day since Cecil and I have to work. He’s doing well! We gave him some ibuprofen this morning as the doctor instructed, and Cecil very loudly emphasized to Steve over the phone that Roger is gluten intolerant. Also Janice wanted to stay home from school to hang out with Roger but Abby wouldn’t let her. But, Steve gets to take them both out for Big Rico’s after Janice gets home so I think it’s all well. Also! I think I offered this yesterday, but if you need a ride home today I can totally do that! Hopefully the insurance company won’t give you too much of a hard time over getting a new car. I’m not sure what your financial situation is like but I’m sure that Cecil and I would both be willing to chip in a little money if you need it. I hope you’re doing okay, Earl!]

Earl read over the text for a long moment. People often said Cecil talked too much, but Earl was starting to think Carlos was just as big of a motormouth. He decided to send a quick text back.

[I’m okay. Head hurts. The doctor says that’s normal. Give Steve my number if he doesn’t have it. I’m glad Roger’s doing okay. Tell him I love him. I’ll have to call the insurance company today. I’m good as far as money goes. Despite being nineteen all that time I was good at keeping a savings account.]

Earl dreaded arguing with the insurance company, and knew that he’d probably it’d be weeks before he even saw a dime from them. He let out a huff and sunk down in his bed, closing his eyes. His phone buzzed after a moment and he just assumed Carlos had replied. This was not the case. It was an unknown number.

[Earl Harlan? I have some questions for you if you have some free time. My name is Simone Rigadeau. I’m a friend of Cecil’s.]

[Yeah, that’s me. I guess I have time now. Are you a reporter or something?]

[No. Not a journalist of any sort. Journalists gather opinions. I gather facts. I am scientist.]

Earl felt like he had been dealing with a lot of scientists lately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter is gonna have a lot of simone, and i love her, so that's good. also steve. steve carlsberg is my baby and i didnt originally plan on making him a big part of this fic but i just might.


	6. Gathering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve Carlsberg is helpful, Cecil is angry, Kevin is lonely, Simone just wants answers, and Earl really likes tea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woooo okay another chapter. with steve!! my baby!! ALSO this chapter puts us past the 30k mark in just under a month of writing this story. i couldnt tell you the last time i ever wrote this much (probably NEVER)
> 
> anyway, thanks so much to those of you who like my story!

Simone Rigadeau did not like the idea of ruining anyone else’s life. Her’s was currently unrecoverable, but she did not want this to be the case for those around her. Unfortunately, that was the human side of her. And she was a human second, and a scientist first.

Talking to Kevin had been an interesting time. He was chipper, which was simultaneously pleasant and annoying. But he had some experiences that were extremely similar to those that Simone had experienced herself, and she had never had someone to relate to with the subject like this. 

Kevin had experienced the static several times in his life, and since 1983 (in which Kevin did experience it as well), he has also seen it every single time Simone had. She wondered how this was all connected, and why Kevin and Cecil and her were the only ones who seemed to be aware of it. Also, how did Earl fit into all of this?

Simone had tried asking Earl some questions, but he was about as helpful as a broken stoplight. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying to help, but that he literally could not remember the majority of his life. He also seemed rather shy, but Simone would work on that. She knew the other Earl well enough that she could probably get this one to like her. 

Simone had her goals for the day set out in front of her. She needed to plan to meet up with Cecil sometime in about a week. Not immediately. She wanted Earl to come with him, but she needed to loosen him up first. She thought about getting Carlos to come with, but Carlos had always been skeptical about her claims about living a split reality and honestly, he rubbed her the wrong way. She also definitely needed to chat with Kevin some more, and he seemed to enjoy the company so she could deal with that. 

Simone finally took a deep breath and settled in her seat. She could get some sleep in this reality now, and maybe switch to the other one for a little while. She decided to do this, lulling her body into a state of relaxation and focusing on the world happening in her left eye. 

Simone was in a tent, curled up and surrounded by an array of notebooks. She yawned and pushed her way out of the enclosed space and into the hot desert air. “Cecil,” she called softly, looking around.

Cecil waved a hand, calling out to her. He was only a few feet away from their small camp, and was filling his canteen up from one of the solar stills. Cecil Palmer had this uncanny ability to not change much. He was tanner, and his hair was cut short and pulled back into a small ponytail, and he looked a little rough, but he was still just Cecil. 

Simone made her way over to him, taking a seat in the sand and taking a sip from the canteen offered to her. Once she handed it back she smiled. “I talked to other you last night. Also Earl this morning.”

“Oh really?” Cecil inquired, grinning a bit and moving to hug his knees to his chest. He rested his chin on a kneecap, watching Simone through captivating purple irises. “How did that go?”

“Well. Well I mean, Earl is in the hospital. He was in a car accident but he’s alright. I was talking to him today and he seemed okay. And you’re doing well. I kept you up a little late asking you questions.”

“About the static you saw yesterday? Is Earl’s car crash why it happened?” Cecil pulled a string off of his pants, which had easily seen much better days. 

“I think so. I think he died originally.” Simone admitted, crossing her legs in the sand and patting her hands along her legs as she thought. “But the static doesn’t happen everytime he dies. It only happens to him when he dies. Or doesn’t die. Dies and then undies.”

“My Early is just as immortal as I am, apparently.” Cecil chuckled, moving to finally stand up and putting out a hand. Simone took it and let the other pull her to her feet. “That’s fine by me.”

“Yeah, I’m glad he’s always okay.” Simone agreed, glancing back and seeing the redhead in the distance. He seemed to be hunting a snake or something. 

“Simone, can I ask you a question?” Cecil asked, his voice quiet now. His hand touched her shoulder, and she looked back at him with a face full of concern. “When you figure all of this out, and there’s no doubt in my mind that you will, what are you going to do? I mean… There will be no use for you to focus on this reality anymore. You can just go back to your life in the other one and… And the you that’s here is just sort of silently on autopilot. She follows us around and eats if given food but… She’s not you. And… I don’t want you to leave me, Simone.”

Simone was a little offput by the suddenly emotionally conversation. “Cecil, I assure you that I am going nowhere. I mean, even if I do figure all of this out… There’s no guarantee that it’s going to fix my life. I’ll still be living split realities. And just because I will understand why doesn’t mean that I’m just going to stop. I don’t come back here because I’m using this reality for experiment purposes only. Honestly if anything… _This_ is my default life, and the other one is the one I visit strictly to do science. This is the timeline I lived in. This is where I should be.”

Cecil nodded at that, looking quite relieved and after a moment wrapped his arms around Simone tightly. She paused before hugging him back, sliding her hands up and down his back.

“Hey,” Earl’s voice came from behind them. “Did I miss something?”

“Cecil is a big baby,” Simone joked before pulling back, and Cecil gave her cheek a very gentle kiss. It was always a little odd, but never unpleasant. 

“Yeah, I am.” Cecil chuckled, but then moved to hug Earl tightly. Earl did not hug him back, considering in one hand he had a machete and in the other a dead snake. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Earl blinked in confusion, before looking over Cecil’s head to Simone. “Did something happen to the other me?”

“He was in a car accident but he’s alright. His son is alright as well.” Simone nodded and moved to take the snake and the knife so Earl could hug his boyfriend back. “Also Cecil, you apparently have a dog. Named Nikola Tesla.”

“Nikola Tesla? I met him once,” Cecil mused, grinning a bit and snuggling against Earl’s shoulder as he turned his head to look at Simone. “He was in love with his pet pigeon. He was a very odd sort.” Cecil mused, and Earl snorted.

“So you didn’t sleep with this scientist?”

“Just that one. I slept with all the rest of them, though.” Cecil smirked, breaking off his tight embrace with Earl and exchanging it for something more casual. “But that’s not the important question to ask. What kind of dog is it?”

“I didn’t ask,” Simone admitted, and Cecil looked disappointed. “I will next time I talk to you, alright?” She offered, and Cecil grinned.

After a moment Simone took a deep breath. “I also um. Spoke to this gentlemen from Desert Bluffs. His name is Kevin and… I think he’ll be very useful.”

______________________________________________________

Carlos sat in his car, watching Steve walk Roger up the sidewalk and waving to the two of them. Cecil was in the passenger seat, and was dozing off. He didn’t even have the energy to sneer at Steve.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Carlos inquired as he pulled out of that development and got back on the road. And then immediately into traffic. He sighed, pausing behind the unmoving cars and reaching over to squeeze his lover’s hand. “Cecil sweetie, hello?”

“Hm? Oh, oh yeah I’m fine.” Cecil stirred, yawning a bit and adjusting positions. “I’m just… Carlos, I have a question. About science.”

“Oh?” Carlos arched his brows, watching Cecil for a moment before nodding. “Well as a scientist I am qualified to answer questions about science. I’ll do so to the best of my ability.”

“Yes, okay, so.” Cecil paused, trying to form a question in his mind. “Say… Well okay, time travel. How much do you know about it?”

“Well I own a time travel device like most citizens of Night Vale do and I’ve tinkered with mine a bit and stared at it while holding my chin and saying ‘hmm’ a lot so I’d say I’m pretty knowledgeable.” Carlos thought he could be of some help.

“So… Do you believe that there are like, different timelines in which different things happened? Like, each decision in life has two or more outcomes and timelines based on those decisions?”

Carlos’ brows furrowed, turning to watch Cecil for a moment. “Well, I wouldn’t say I believe it. I don’t really believe in anything, if I’m being entirely honest. Believing in something implies that there is little to no proof that it is real and that you are relying on faith. It is… More of a theory. Scientists don’t believe, they theorize.”

“Okay, well, still. Say it’s true. Say there are countless timelines where different things happened and people turned out differently due to the fact that they made different decisions and experienced different things. Following me?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Well,” Cecil continued, his hands gesticulating as he talked. He was a very animated person, and Carlos thought he looked like a cartoon character sometimes. It was adorable. “Say two of these timelines… Somehow could interact with one another.”

Carlos seemed to click things into place and made a face. “Is this about Simone?”

“Yes.” Cecil didn’t hesitate to answer, and Carlos groaned a bit. “Oh come on Carlos. You spent a year investigating a house that doesn’t exist despite the fact that is simultaneously did and did not exist. You can’t believe this woman is stuck living in two different timelines?”

“Cecil, there’s no proof.” He pointed out, sighing and brushing his hair back with a hand. The cars had still not moved. “Like I’m not saying that it’s not true but… I’ve talked to Simone briefly before and from what she’s explained, there’s no way for me to help her. There’s no way for anyone to help her.”

“I want to help her.” Cecil said after a moment, his voice small. He sighed and sunk into his seat. “I have to. I don’t know how to explain this to you but… I feel like somehow I have a bigger hand in all of this and… I don’t know, Carlos. I really don’t know. I don’t know if I want to know.”

Carlos frowned deeply at this, sitting back in his seat as traffic began to move again and he started down the road. He mulled over Cecil’s words silently, and wasn’t quite sure what to say to this.

“Oh,” Cecil said after a few minutes of silence, “also, Kevin says hi.”

________________________________________________________

The next couple of days were quite calm in Night Vale, and Simone had spent a good amount of time talking to Earl (in the not-ended reality), and was meeting Cecil and him for coffee this morning. She had also been in almost constant contact with Kevin, and she meant constant. As in, he never stopped texting her. Simone had sort of gained the impression that he was less interested in the static and more interested in making friends, but she wasn’t going to argue. If she was being honest, she almost enjoyed talking to him.

In one reality she sat in the barista district, outside in the blinding morning sunlight of Night Vale. It was very early, and the place wasn’t busy. She tapped her fingers on the glass table as she waited.

In the other reality she was walking along with Cecil and Earl through the used car lot, heading all the way to the back. There was a large tent there, where Steve Carlsberg had his own space. Steve for forty-four now, and she had only spoken to the Steve from the not-destroyed reality a couple times. Same receding hairline and goofy smile, but the other one had more of a potbelly and was a little more ridiculous.

Their Steve though, he was of an entirely different caliber. The inside of his tent was dimly lit by his lantern, and he was bent over a makeshift desk composing of an old sheet of wood and some cinderblocks. There was a sleeping bag on the ground that sat unmade, and the place was littered with stacks upon stacks of books Steve had managed to salvage. And the walls were full of drawings of lines and patterns and a star map covered in writing. It was all very confusing to anyone who wasn’t Steve, and Steve swore these lines and patterns told him everything. It wasn’t science, and Simone did not understand it, but for the first time in a long time she was willing to listen.

“Steve,” Simone greeted Steve as she entered the tent, eyes needing a moment to adjust to the dim lighting. “I want to talk to you.”

Cecil paused to look around, feeling uncomfortable. A lot of these books were banned, and Cecil knew Steve had ventured to the library or the forbidden parts of government headquarters to retrieve them. Some of them were partially burned, but Steve had tried to salvage them. And these maps of places Cecil had never even heard of. He approached a map of the country, pausing and reading off the name of states that were foreign to him. Michigan? Ohio? Alabama? What were these places? Cecil felt nauseous. 

“Hiya there Simone! Cecil, Earl, everyone, come in come in!” He grinned, pushing up from his seat on a crate and waving them in. He turned the lantern all the way up so it was a tad brighter in the room, and his smile was welcoming. “What can I help ya with?”

“I, erm,” Simone paused, not sure what to do with herself. She had discredited Steve on several previous occasions, and despite knowing he was not one to hold a grudge, she felt her pride being squashed underneath her need to understand. _Scientist first_ , she reminded herself. “I am investigating the split realities, and… I think your input may be useful to me.”

Steve brightened at this, smiling and nodding. “Take a seat,” he indicated to the folded up lawn chairs in the corner of the tent. Earl moved to grab them and begin setting them up, and Simone took a seat immediately. 

“Now I must warn you,” Simone said, placing her hands on her knees. “In my other reality I am currently---”

“At a coffee shop waiting for Earl and Cecil, I know.” Steve nodded, smiling a bit and plopping back down on the crate he was using as a chair. It creaked loudly in protest. “I understand if you have to pause our conversation to participate in that one. I have paper if you need to take notes. I talk an awful lot and you can never be sure what is important and what is not. Also, Earl will be arriving from behind you in about ten seconds.”

Simone paused, and she counted. And sure enough in about ten seconds, Earl’s body was in her peripheral vision and moved past her for a moment, before turning and glancing at her. “Simone Rigadeau…?”

Simone took a moment to switch to her other reality, before nodding. “Yes, that is me. Hi Earl. Sit.” She shook his hand firmly, and he sat down. A waiter appeared after a moment, or what Simone assumed was a waiter. It was wearing a nametag and apron, but otherwise was invisible. It’s outline flickered occasionally, and it’s voice was hollow and robotic. It asked Earl if he wanted anything, and Earl ordered a cup of hot green tea. 

“Not a coffee drinker?” Simone inquired, taking a sip of her own cup. It was small talk, but it would soothe Earl who frankly looked a little frazzled. She had to remind herself that he used to look like that all the time when she had first met him.

“Can’t stand the stuff,” Earl admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Don’t tell Cecil, though. You know how he is absolutely addicted to coffee. I don’t really understand it. It’s just… Beans grounded and soaked in water and it’s bitter and has to be drowned in other things that taste better to make it anywhat decent.”

“Says the man ready to drink a cup of leaf sweat,” Simone quipped, and flashed a clever grin at the other. Earl paused, and couldn’t help but snort a bit at that. Simone watched him begin reorganizing the things on the table, from the packets of sugar and artificial sweetener to the laminated mini-menu advertizing some special they had on pastries. Simone had watched Earl nervously reorganize many things before, and did not say a word. 

“Heeeey guys!!!” Cecil’s voice chimed loudly from behind Earl, and they both jumped. Cecil laughed, placing his hands firmly on the man’s shoulders and leaning on him. “Morning! Isn’t it a beautiful, beautiful morning?”

“You sure are happy,” Simone commented as Cecil took the seat next to Earl.

“I _am_ ,” Cecil said, nodding. “I have determined that I want to help, and that is what I am here to do, help. I’m not sure if I’m actually good at helping, but I am going to try my best. You are my friend Simone, and I want you to understand these realities.”

Simone thought this was good, at least. She needed them all to be readily involved in her little investigation. She had to be careful, though. Cecil was dead set in the Night Vale way of doing things, and one wrong thing would make him shut down completely. That was part of the reason she hadn’t gotten this reality’s Steve in on this meeting as well. As much as she wanted to, she knew Cecil would become entirely reluctant. 

“Earl, is that the rental car?” Cecil inquired as he settled in the seat next to the tall man and glanced at a car parked by the curb.

“Oh?” Earl glanced over and nodded. “Yeah. The insurance company just keeps screaming at me every time I call them. Something about bees. Also my check is in the mail, but mail is really _weird_ here, so… There’s that.”

“If you two don’t mind,” Simone started, glancing at them. “I may tune you out and visit the other reality now. Just tap my hand if you need me.” Simone didn’t pause to receive an answer before switching to her other reality. 

“Welcome back!” Steve greeted, and Simone gave a glance around the room to see Earl with an arm wrapped around Cecil. They were over by the maps and Cecil looked concerned and a little hopeless. 

“Thanks,” Simone said quickly, before taking a breath. “So Steve, tell me, you… You see lines and arrows and circles and things of that sort, but in the sky? And these lines and such, they… Tell you everything?”

“Well, not everything.” Steve shook his head. “Just… Things that are true in this moment in time. I could not, say… Tell you when you are going to die. Even if you were to die in like, five minutes. I also couldn’t tell you what Cecil ate for breakfast the day the bomb dropped. I can tell you that in the other reality I’m at home with Roger who is watching an episode of Spongebob while I make scones. I plan on leaving the house soon. Carlos is at his lab and he is thinking about Kevin and debating if he should call him. Cecil is tapping his right foot under the table. Et cetera.”

Simone listened to Steve talk for a long moment, and found herself utterly dumbfounded. “You can’t even see the sky right now.”

“He stepped out about a minute ago,” Earl added, shrugging. “Said he knew you were about to come back because Cecil was arriving and he’d want to make small talk.”

Steve grinned and began scribbling out a map of the dotted lines and arrows and circles on a piece of paper in front of him. “So, you want to know about the static?”

“Yes. Or. About these realities.” Simone wasn’t going to be picky. She’d take information on either. She wasn’t sure what Steve could tell her, but it was something.

“Well from what I’ve gathered the static is just realities splitting apart.” He flipped over his paper and drew a line. “This is a reality. And then something happens, and then the static, and then this.” He continued the line for a moment before forking it apart like a ‘Y’. “Anyone who is entangled in time in a way that the average person is not experiences it. How wonky is that!” He grinned, but Simone did not smile back.

“How did I become entangled in time?” She inquired, and Steve simply shrugged.

“I have no way of knowing. But if I had to guess,” Steve finally gave another shrug. “It was one big coinkydink!” He put his hands up at Simone’s look, waving away her emotions. “You just happened to get caught up in everything while reality was changing. Just a mistake somewhere in the process.”

“The masters of us all do not make mistakes,” Cecil replied gravely in the background, and Earl pet his hair back.

“Why can’t they? Nobody’s perfect!” Steve chimed, and Cecil looked almost angry. ”Hey hey, Cecil buddy, it’s all fine! I’m not saying they make lots of mistakes or anything.” He waved his hands and Earl kept a firm grasp on Cecil’s upper arms. Cecil got agitated easily when it came to Steve, and Earl wanted to contain a screaming fit if that was possible.

“I’m going to switch again,” Simone finally sighed, and did so. The other reality was calmer for the moment. Cecil was talking to the invisible waiter and ordering some complicated coffee beverage with two shots of espresso and extra foam. Also a couple of pastries. She really hoped he was paying for his own order.

“Hey,” she said, and Earl glanced up.

“Welcome back. So… I’m not sure where to start.” He admitted, and looked funny holding such a tiny teacup in his giant hands. “I’ve never seen the static. And I don’t really have any experience with alternate realities as far as I know. I… I mean, I have a lot of time related incidents and some experience with an alternate dimension that I don’t remember.”

“One moment,” Simone said, pulling out her phone and calling Kevin. She put him on speaker and set the phone on the middle of the table. “Kevin, it’s Simone. I am here with Cecil and Earl and we are going to have a conversation that I think you should be a part of.”

“Oh!” Kevin chimed, and Simone could hear him creak around on whatever he must have been laying on. “Well I am still a little sleepy but I will try my best to join in! Also, hi Earl! We haven’t met yet!”

“Oh um,” Earl paused for a moment, before nodding. “Hi. I’m um, not entirely sure who you are.”

“Oh, my name is Kevin! I am the radio host for Desert Bluffs.”

Earl paused, before glancing around the table as if he was asking to be reassured that he had heard that correctly. “Oh,” he said, before nodding. “Alright then.”

Simone watched Cecil pull out his Little Reporter’s Book of Big Boy Note Taking. He opened it up to somewhere in the middle, and she made a face. The Cecil she knew had this same notebook, and it contained countless information. Despite appearing completely normal, the notebook seemingly had an infinite amount of writing space and even wrote for Cecil when he wasn’t actively doing so. Simone could see their entire conversation written down on the page Cecil opened to, despite the fact that he only just now opened it. He pulled out a pen, and glanced to the two who shrugged at the illegal writing utensil, before he got to writing. 

“Alright,” Simone started, trying to collect her thoughts. “Let’s go over what we know for sure. Both I and Kevin experienced the static in 1983 when my realities first split. I only saw the destroyed reality for several months, before I experienced the static again. This is when Earl died, or didn’t die. He was dead. But then he wasn’t dead. And then everything reset and he never even encountered the librarian that originally killed him at all. But anyway, when the static happened the second time for me, I began seeing this reality.”

“I’ve had a couple instances like that,” Earl admitted, using a stirrer to swirl the liquid in his cup around. “Not the static, but… The dying. And not dying. Once in a scouting accident I encountered a bear and well… I should have been very dead. And then I was suddenly fine. Or another instance where I was hiking along the ridge of Radon Canyon and I slipped and.... The fall should have killed me. I distinctly remember my wrist breaking on my way down before I lost consciousness and… I woke up at the bottom completely unscathed.”

“The same has happened to the other you several times,” Simone added, nodding her head. “It’s like… You die, and then you reset. Has… Has it happened since you aged up?”

“No,” Earl shook his head. “I’ve been careful about not dying. Well I mean, I’m always careful to not die. Dying would not be ideal.” He made a face at his rambling, before finally going quiet again.

“So as far as we know, you cannot die?” Simone inquired, nodding a bit and pulling her headful of wild curls back into a ponytail. She took a long sip of her coffee before pulling out her own notebook and taking notes. “Okay, and Cecil, you can’t die either, correct?”

“Well, I’m not sure if I can’t die.” Cecil pointed out, looking to Simone. Words, in Cecil’s handwriting, continued appearing in the Little Reporter’s Book of Big Boy Note Taking as he spoke, despite his pen no longer being on the page. “I just… Have never encountered a moment in which I have died, I guess.”

“But lots of things that would kill the average person cannot kill you.” Simone pointed out, glancing up to watch his notebook write down exactly what she had just said. She really wished she could study that notebook, but she had more important things to study. “Remember on air when that silverfish crawled in your ear and so you shot yourself in the ear to get rid of it?”

Earl gagged a bit on his sip of tea and looked to Cecil wide eyed, while Cecil just shrugged. “There was a bug in my ear,” Cecil pointed out, eyebrows raising as he looked up at Earl. “I didn’t overreact in the slightest.”

“I’m the same way,” Kevin offered up through the phone. “I mean, lots of people die when they lose lots of blood or can’t breathe or have their heart removed, but I’m always okay.”

“You’ve had your heart removed?” Simone’s brows rose high on her forehead, staring at the phone for a long moment.

“Yeah! But it grew back, so it’s all okay!” Kevin sounded like he was smiling. “It happened back when Strex was taking over and the scientists there were very intrigued by my ability to well, not die. And they wanted to see if they could figure out how it worked so they could help the other Strex employees not die so we could all be productive forever and ever!”

“So they… Had to see if there was any way you could die?” Earl sounded slightly horrified, not wanting to imagine what Strex did to Kevin but not being able to fight off his morbid curiosity either.

“Yeah! They gave up after a while, though. Nothing was working! Poison didn’t work, starving didn’t work, exsanguination didn’t work, suffocation didn’t work. My, they kept on going and going for a while…” Kevin’s cheer was leaving his voice bit by bit, and Simone wasn’t sure if she should change the subject.

“Drowning doesn’t work either,” Cecil murmured after a moment, making a face. “I uh, know that from experience.”

“When did you drown?” Earl glanced over, looking horrified.

“Mmm,” Cecil sighed, sitting back in his seat. “That’s a long story,” he paused, drumming his fingers on his knees for a long moment. “This was way back when I made my travels to Europe…” Cecil told the story quietly, frowning deeply. He had a deep-seated fear of water, and by the time he was finished the story everyone in the listening vicinity understood why.

Earl shook his head, sighing deeply and going back to his tea. “That’s so awful…” Kevin made a sound of agreement on the other end, and Simone simply nodded her head. The next few minutes were awkwardly silent.

“We are not getting much done,” Kevin finally said, and everyone glanced to the phone and nodded in agreement despite the fact that Kevin could not hear a nod. “We need to resort our thoughts. Is there anyone else we know who could help us?”

“Well,” Simone started, “I have another Cecil and Earl on my side. Plus erm, another gentleman who is currently trying to gather up some information for me.”

“Anyone I know?” Cecil inquired and Simone really wished she hadn’t. Cecil just about spat out his sip of coffee when Simone told him it was Steve. “ _What?_ ”

“Look,” Simone said, holding her hands up as a sign of surrender. “I was running out of ideas and he’s always seemed to want to share his with me. I don’t plan on involving the Steve in this reality, okay? I know he has Abby and Janice to watch over. But the Steve in the other dimension doesn’t. Nobody is going to punish him for being too nosy, and it can’t hurt your family Cecil.”

Cecil stared Simone down for a long moment, and she couldn’t help but feel bad. She knew he wouldn’t like this, but what other choice did she have? He finally turned his attention back to his drink, finishing off the coffee and beginning to gather his stuff together. “I should leave. I have errands I have to get done before work this morning.”

“ _Cecil_ ,” Simone said, her voice a little pleading. “Come on. I know you have issues with him but he’s going to help us. Just like you want to help me, right? That’s all he wants too.”

Cecil paused, staring Simone down for a long moment before taking out his wallet and leaving a few dollars on the table. “That should cover my stuff. I’ll talk to you later, Simone.”

“Cecil, wait!” Kevin called over the phone and Cecil huffed loudly, but didn’t say anymore. Kevin took this as a sign that he’d at least be listened to. “You should… Get Carlos to help us. He has lots of scientific resources and knowledge and stuff that could really help us figure this all out.”

Cecil made a face, staring at the phone for a moment as he pulled his messenger bag over his head so the strap crossed his chest. “I… Carlos, he… I know Carlos holds my opinions on things in high regard but… I don’t think it’s high enough for me to convince him this is worth his time.”

“Just ask him.” Kevin said, sighing a bit. “I get that you aren’t sure but.. He’s a scientist. And scientists are pesky and want to know answers. And we _need_ answers.”

Cecil stared at the phone for a long moment before finally nodding. “Alright, fine. Okay. I’ll talk to him.” The radio host gave Earl’s hair a gentle ruffle and Simone a look before disappearing off down the sidewalk to go find his car.

“Do you think Carlos will help us?” Earl inquired, mostly to Kevin.

“Once he notices how much this is bothering Cecil he will,” Simone answered for Kevin, and finished off the last swig of cold coffee resting at the bottom of her cup. “Now my real concern is how to keep this reality’s Steve Carlsberg from ruining this all. Because he knows everything that my reality’s Steve knows and probably wants to be involved.”

“That’s right,” a voice came from behind Simone, and they all turned to see the face of Steve Carlsberg. He was a man of average height, in a polo and creased khakis. He had a bit of a potbelly, and a receding hairline, and his eyes crinkled when he gave an apologetic grin. “I knew to wait until after Cecil left. I like him plenty but boy! He does not like me.” Steve laughed a bit and took and the seat that had previously belonged to Cecil. It was still warm.

“Steve, this is a bad idea,” Earl said, making a face at the other. The waiter came over after a moment and refilled Earl’s teacup, before disappearing. 

“Hooo boy, trust me, I know.” Steve said, trying to request a cup of coffee from the waiter but being ignored. He sighed. “Just. Trust me. I get that it’s a bad idea, but… The truth is bigger than me. And bigger than you, And bigger than Abby and Janice and Cecil too. And… I know that this is going to royally piss off my brother-in-law, I understand that. But… I want in. I want to help.”

“I say we should let him,” Kevin chimed over the phone, and Steve grinned a bit. Simone finally nodded as well. And Earl, despite knowing he shouldn’t be okay with this, finally gave in as well.

“Ohohoho,” Steve moved to take a container from his bag. “Since we’re all officially a team now, I thought I’d bring scones!”

Simone made a face, thinking of all the times Cecil had gone on the radio talking about how dry and tasteless these scones were. She took one of the triangular pastries when offered it, and sniffed it a bit. It smelt sweet, with a hint of lemon zest. She took a bite and paused, and suddenly came to a realization. Cecil Palmer was a goddamn liar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now i know yall are like "Wtf viki why didnt you write out cecils drowning story?" or maybe you arent asking that. maybe you dont want to know. either way, the next chapter is gonna be the story. there's a blond guy named werner and probably some kissing and some nonexistent mountains in the background. so look forward to that.
> 
> also those scones are hella good and cecil palmer is bitter af


	7. Werner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a small trip back to the late 1800s, when a spry, young Cecil Palmer was traveling cross country, stealing the hearts of those he fancied. Unfortunately, said time period is rather unforgiving on someone as different as Cecil Palmer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man its been a lil while hasn't it? I guess I should probably say this fic probably wont be updating super often but I'm going to try and keep up with it if my mental health will allow me. so sorry if there are anymore huge gaps!
> 
> anyway, yeah, the drowning chapter. this chapter doesn't really have anything to do with the main story so you don't have to read it if like drowning freaks you out or anything. 
> 
> heres a lil list of warnings for this chapter:  
> some vomit mentions but nothing graphic, just the typical nausea that has been seen in other chapters  
> some time period related racism and homophobia  
> a bit of violence  
> drowning  
> theres some making out too  
> earl surprisingly doesn't die in this chapter
> 
> ok I think that's good as far as warnings go.

It was the late 1800s, and the countryside of Luftnarp was as beautiful as it was overwhelmingly unknown. There were tall alpine structures - not mountains, certainly not mountains - off in the background. Cecil’s bag was light on his back as he wandered down the stone path in his worn down shoes. Svitz and Franchia behind him, Cecil knew his journey in Europe was over half over and he was almost disappointed. There was something so deeply satisfying about being independent like this. Just pandering about Europe, working when he needed money, and engaging in the company of those he fancied whenever he pleased. He had met all sorts in his travels. Scholars, artists, scientists… And if being entirely honest with himself, he fancied those scientists quite a bit. 

He smirked a bit as he made his way to a small village with these thoughts in his head. His first mission was to enter the first tavern he came across, and barter a bit with the man behind the counter. He hadn’t much money in his pocket, but he was willing to tend to the bar or do dishes to pay off a meal. And with this, he ended up with a large bowl of day old potato stew. He worked on his meal and helped tend the bar for the rest of the night, chatting up customers and if being quite honest, flirting a bit. 

Cecil had not been raised in the Western view of thinking. He had been raised alongside other Natives, where his gender and sexual orientation were never once questioned. When the whites had travelled out West and set up nearby to claim land and set up the roots that would become Night Vale, they were genuinely surprised by the Natives ideas. Westerners believed there were only two genders, and that men and women should only lay with one another. The Natives had an entirely different view on such matters, and while Night Valians had seemed to be more willing to accept the Natives views, this wasn’t the same for the rest of the Western-minded world. 

This sometimes led to issues when Cecil stopped flirting with the cute female customers and began making suggestive quips to the males sipping warm beer from glasses. Long story short, the bartender was shooing Cecil away soon enough saying he had paid off the debt of his meal. 

Cecil confessed to the bartender that he did not seem to have enough money to rent out a hostel, and inquired as to where there might be a place he could stay. The bartender reluctantly informed him of a shop towards the center of town that sold herbs imported from other countries. The owner was an older man along with his several sons. They rented out a bedroom on occasion to those passing through who were willing to pay with labor. 

Cecil was off in no time, wandering about the streets and watching the sun in the distance. Horse drawn carriages passed by, and travelers and townsfolk alike gawked at him and whispered. Cecil was used to this. He understood that he did not look like most of them. He didn’t look like most people, anyway. 

Upon reaching the shop he had been directed to, he stopped by the front counter and smiled at the young man behind the table. He couldn’t have been older than twenty or so, and he had a headful of sandy hair and bored eyes that looked offset on such young features. 

“Hello there,” Cecil had started and that had been the end of that. The boy had taken one look at him, and Cecil had briefly explained what he wanted, and the boy (who seemed entirely captivated with Cecil) led him right to a room upstairs above their little shop. Cecil dropped his things off in the small room and followed the boy back downstairs and into the shop. He was handed a broom and a list of tasks and Cecil went about tidying and greeting customers. 

He met the owner later that day when he returned from some errands, and he was an rude older man who sneered at Cecil’s skin tone but didn’t say much else. Cecil explained he only needed to be housed for two or three nights and then he’d be out of there way, and the old man seemed to accept that despite appearing a bit reluctant. Cecil ignored the comment the man made to his son about making sure Cecil didn’t steal anything. 

“I apologize,” the blond boy said from his spot across the shop once his father had disappeared from sight. 

“It’s just how things are for now,” Cecil said with a shrug as he swept the spots around the shelves that held the store's wares. “It won’t always be like that, though. People fear things that are new,” he mused with a shrug. “I won’t always be new.” 

The boy seemed to contemplate this for a while, until a customer entered the store and distracted him. Cecil felt the other’s eyes on him for the rest of the night, but in a way that hinted not at distrust, but at fancy. 

When the day came to an end, the boy walked Cecil back upstairs to the room he was staying in. It wasn’t large, but it had a cot and a water basin and a lantern. Cecil lit the lantern and took a seat and smiled at the blond boy for a long moment. “I do apologize,” he started, hands resting on his knees. “But I do not believe I ever caught your name.” 

The blond boy stared at him for a moment, before shrugging. “Werner,” he replied. The ‘w’ was pronounced with a hard ‘v’ sound, so Cecil made a mental note of that as to not pronounce it incorrectly later. 

“Cecil.” The native replied and was silent for a moment, before moving to lay down on his cot and staring at the ceiling. “Thank you for lending me this room.” 

Werner nodded, and stood in the doorway to the lean stairwell for a moment. “I have to retire. Our home is out on the other side of town so I have a bit of a hike… I will see you tomorrow?” 

“Yes,” Cecil said, turning to smile at him as he undid the tie from his own long hair. Werner was staring. “I will probably be staying another night. I desire a little more time in your company.” 

Werner’s cheeks flared up red for a moment, before he gave a fervent nod and slowly disappeared from sight. 

Cecil removed his clothes and washed himself up a bit in the basin before retiring for the night. The cot was comfortable enough, and he slept through the night with no issues. 

The next morning came around rather quickly, and Cecil was thankful for a decent night sleep in a cot and not in a field somewhere. He had slept in quite a few fields, and had picked quite a few insects off of himself for fear of catching some sort of illness. That was not the instance today, and he took the time to wash his hands and redress himself. He brushed out his hair with a comb he had purchased back in Svitz off a salesman who made them by hand out of some kind of bones. Cecil had spent more time in the man’s bed than he had in his workshop, being entirely honest. 

Heading downstairs he caught sight of the backs of several heads. “Hello,” he greeted, and three blonds turned to look at him. None of them were Werner, but Cecil could see the family resemblance. The same brown eyes, and noses all curved in a similar way, and topped off with golden hair. “Seems to be a rather bright morning,” Cecil commented at the sunlight swimming in from the windows behind the men. 

“Indeed,” the oldest commented and nodded his head as he came forward like he was going to shake Cecil’s hand. This was not the case, and instead the man paused and inspected the other. “My father did say you looked an odd sort.” 

“Oh? Did he?” Cecil inquired, head tilting a bit and watching the other. Cecil was used to the gawking, but with all three men’s eyes on him he couldn’t help but feel a little self conscious. The door in the background opened up and Cecil heard a familiar voice. 

“Morning!” Werner greeted, setting down a bag full of freshly picked herbs from the family garden back at him and pausing to look at his brothers who were gathered around Cecil. “Are we having a quarrel?” 

“No, not at all.” The eldest brother shook his head and finally stepped back. “Just a little awed is all. Never seen markings of that sort before. Do all of your people look this way?” 

Cecil recognized that the purple moon on his forehead and the matching freckles littering his body were coming into question, and he shook his head. “Very few of us. Actually, just my relatives.” 

“Well is that not just a wild sight?” One of the other brothers remarked, before shrugging. “I have never heard of a redskin with markings like that before.” 

Cecil did not prefer the term, but did not open his mouth. Instead Werner shooed his brothers out of the shop and returned to his spot behind the counter, frowning and looking up at Cecil. “It is not your fault,” Cecil said before any other words were exchanged. “I have encountered some who try to physically harm me due to my appearance. Being stared at is undesirable but much preferable to the pain.” 

Werner’s face twisted and he sighed deeply, shaking his head. “Oh the world we live in,” he hummed softly in disapproval. And for a long moment, he deeply reminded Cecil of his old best friend Earl Harlan. Despite being raised in the Western view of life, both seemed entirely unsatisfied with it. Cecil missed Earl for a long moment, but shoved the thoughts aside. Earl could have been here if he had wanted to. Earl was the one who stopped talking to him. Cecil wished he knew why. 

Cecil got back to work, and the other brothers were in and out of the shop throughout the day. At one point Cecil found himself without Werner, and felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him. He kept his eyes down and did as he was told and thought about all of the money he was going to make. His stomach growled, and he reminded himself that he could make his way down to the alehouse at some point today and maybe put out a shilling for a loaf of bread or something. 

This proved unnecessary when midday came around and Werner returned, only to usher Cecil out and down the street with him. “Where are we going?” Cecil inquired. 

“You have not eaten, correct? A close family friend lives down the street, and she cooks large portions of food at a time and sells it around town for laborers during their breaks. We usually get discounts since she knows us, and I do not mind covering a meal for you.” 

Cecil was taken aback by the kindness, but did not question it. If a cute boy wanted to buy him a meal, he certainly was not going to complain. 

The place was a tiny house, built of wood and stone and with an open door. Werner headed right inside, so Cecil followed without much question. The inside smelt of freshly baked bread, along with something meaty and the aroma of foreign spices filled the air. Something spicy, Cecil thought. Cecil could see people staring at him warily, but he kept his eyes on Werner who headed right back to the kitchen and waved to a middle aged woman with greying roots and a worn face. 

“Hey Mrs. Marriett,” Werner grinned and produced some currency from his pocket, setting it down on the counter for her. “Two servings, please.” 

The woman simply nodded, and began putting some sort of roast in bowls. Cecil could see bits of orange and green amongst the sauce, and his stomach growled a little. The woman glanced up, catching his eye. “Oh wow,” she commented, setting the bowls down and moving to slice off some warm bread. “You’re one of them they found out west? We don’t get many of you coming through these here parts. Don’t get many dark ones in general.” 

Cecil simply nodded and smiled, glad that the woman wasn’t just gawking at him like most people had been doing. Europeans were so odd. “Yes ma’am. I just finished a couple years of study at a university back home and decided to take the opportunity before settling down to work to explore the world a little.” 

“Ooh, an educated young feller, huh?” She commented, handing Cecil and Werner a bit of bread each. “What are them there markings on your face, son? Tribal tattoos of some sort?” 

Cecil had been asked about the moon on his forehead countless times, and nobody seemed to believe it was a birthmark. “Yes, indeed it is.” He finally replied, deciding that was much simpler than having another stranger gawk at him in belief. 

Finally Werner waved him to follow, and they made their way out of the back of the small house and into a mess of people lazing around and eating on the ground. They found a spot by the fence which seemed relatively private and settled down in the grass there to eat. 

Cecil had to stop himself from making a noise upon tasting the first bite. The meat was gamey, definitely some sort of rabbit or something. And then it was spiced well, and had a bit of a kick to it, which Cecil appreciated. More often than not the food he found at taverns anymore tasted incredibly bland. Cecil finished his meal after a few minutes and set his bowl down in the grass, just glancing up at the sky. Werner didn’t take too long to finish either, and soon enough he was leading them back to the shop. It was empty, and still on break for lunch. And Werner didn’t seem ready to give Cecil any particular orders. The two of them settled by the counter, just exchanging stories. 

“What is your home like?” Werner had asked, and Cecil had explained Night Vale to him. It was a little difficult to explain a desert to someone who had never seen sand, but he tried his best. It was like the ground was made of fine, warm powder. It was the color of tanned skin and slid between your fingers when you tried to hold a handful of it. It was very hot there, but without the moisture in the air it was quite bearable. There were buildings there that had been erected within the past fifty or so years due to white settlers traveling out west. The greenery was sparse and consisted of bulbous plants that sprouted flowers and often came with needles for protection. All of it was foreign and wonderful in a way Werner could not imagine. Cecil did not remember taking the other’s hand, but he had, and was holding it against his mid thigh lightly as he spoke. 

“It sounds beautiful,” Werner admitted, trying to imagine this far away place that had birthed this beautiful stranger. He had not expected the kiss when it came, but he did not reject it either. Cecil had tilted his head ever so gently, and placed their lips firmly together. Werner thought that maybe he should pull away, but he had no real desire to. At least until he heard the front door chime and he quickly broke all contact and went absolutely scarlet, just staring off at the wall. Cecil took a deep breath and a step back as well, and did not look at the newcomer either. Werner recognized his brother’s voice almost instantly after a moment. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Aldhelm had inquired, and Werner was both terrified and excited. He hoped his brother had not seen what had just happened, but he also longed to get Cecil alone again. 

“Not at all,” Werner replied, his voice much more unsteady than he had thought it would be. He swallowed thickly and asked Cecil to retrieve the crates from the back and begin restocking the carom seeds. Cecil simply nodded and disappeared, but Werner could see a smile on his face. He was wearing the same expression. 

___________________________________________________________________

The fireplace inside the alehouse was crackling loudly in the background of all the chatter. It was pleasantly warm inside, and Cecil sat at a table with Werner across from him. His brothers were about, sipping their own warm beers and passing by the table to occasionally check on them. Cecil was just about sure that Werner’s brother Aldhelm had indeed seen them earlier, as he kept sneering at Cecil and seeming uncomfortable around the two of them.

“He’s acting quite odd…” Werner mused as he sipped at his own beer. He had taken the liberty of purchasing one for Cecil as well. “I… I think he may have seen us, erm…”

“I believe he did,” Cecil said, sighing a little sadly and taking a gulp from his own drink. “Werner, maybe we shouldn’t…. Do anymore of that. The last thing I would fancy is getting you into trouble.”

Werner was silent for a long moment, taking another long sip of his beer and finishing it. He didn’t continue the current topic at hand. “We should go for a walk. It is dark, but the moon is quite bright tonight so we shall be alright.”

Cecil watched the other for any sign of hesitance, making a quick glance over to Werner’s brother who was still glaring at him, before finishing his own drink and nodding. He followed the boy out of the tavern and into the warm night air. “You were right about the moon,” he admitted, noticing it was full. Despite the lack of sun, it was quite bright out. They wandered down the dirt road which was relatively empty, arms almost touching as they examined the stars in the clear sky.

“Have you…” Werner chewed on his words for a moment. “Have you ever gotten into trouble with this sort of thing?”

“This is a small town. I would assume it does not see much more than the common, everyday occurrences. A dark skinned man coming into town and engaging in intimate relations with one of the townsfolk who happens to be a man would not play over well at all, sadly.” Cecil frowned. “I think it’s quite silly. Where I am from who you loved was never really questioned. Who I was or how I looked was rarely questioned. It’s such an odd change, coming to a place like this where I am not allowed to be who I am. Or I must be myself only in secret.”

Werner was watching him with sad eyes for a long moment, before gently gripping Cecil’s wrist and pulling him over into the shadows of a building and locking their lips together. Cecil was surprised, but did not hesitate to loop his arms around the other. They both tasted of ale and goosebumps raised on their skin. Werner pulled back first, gasping a bit and trying to catch his own breath. “This… This is going to sound silly.”

“I won’t be here another night,” Cecil spoke softly as his fingertips grazed over the other’s cheeks in the darkness. “So, just go ahead and say it anyway.”

Werner seemed to contemplate this, hands hesitantly touching Cecil’s side in a way that was foreign to the blond boy. “I think a part of me knows I shouldn’t be doing this and maybe I am just… Swallowed up by the moment but… I cannot bring myself to care, dear Cecil. You make me so giddy in a way no one else ever has. I dread the thought that a time will come in which I will never see you again. I have heard dozens upon dozens of tales of… Passionate, overwhelming love that consumed the participants but… It always sounded so unattainable to me. But… Right here, right now, just drinking you in I… I understand.”

Cecil let the other’s words wash over him, and he took a deep, unsteady breath and smiled for a long moment. “You were right. That did sound a little silly.” He chuckled, moving to touch this lips together ever so lightly. Cecil could feel the other’s breath against his mouth, just knotting his fingers into Werner’s hair. “We shouldn’t do this here…”

Werner seemed a little disappointed, but Cecil could not tell if it was due to Cecil’s refusal to return the sentiment or due to Cecil wanting them to move. Either way, he finally nodded and gave a quick ‘follow me.’ 

Cecil followed the other through town and down into a long field of crops. There were several local farms about, the buildings just recognizable in the glimmer of the full moon. “Where are we going?” Cecil had a feeling of worry in his gut. He turned around, feeling eyes on his back but seeing no one. “Will anyone else come this way?”

“My brothers when they walk home, but we have a while before that happens.” Werner insisted as they approached a large farm house with a couple rows of herbs growing alongside of it. Werner led Cecil around the house and back into the field where over the crest of a small hill was a large lake. Werner led them down the hill and by the bank near a small pier that led off into the water. He sat down in the grass, and Cecil took a spot next to him. “Is this private enough?”

“Mmm, yeah.” Cecil commented, glancing up to watch the moon glint off the lake. “It’s quite beautiful when it’s not scary,” he said as he felt Werner’s hand touch his back. “Before Europe I had never seen a body of water larger than a small creek. The boat ride over here was rather awful. Apparently I am the type to fall ill to sea sickness.” He muttered, glancing up at the other for a long moment before leaning in to kiss Werner. Their noses bumped, and Cecil’s chuckle was drowned out in the kiss. 

Cecil knew what he was doing at this point. His line of affairs across Europe had left him with adequate knowledge on how to ease anyone into this sort of situation. Take control, be confident, but read their body language well. He moved to gently straddle the other, pushing them both back against the grass and just melting against the other’s mouth. Each kiss was electric and wild and had the two of them covered in goosebumps. 

Cecil pulled back after a moment, moving to undo the buttons of his loose shirt and removing it. It slid into the grass without a care and Werner just sort of stared. Cecil smiled a bit at the other’s timidness, grabbing his wrists and placing them on his sides. “Don’t be afraid to explore a little.” He spoke quietly, moving to kiss the other again. Cecil could feel cold grass underneath his palms, and Werner’s warm skin through the thin fabric of his shirt. The other’s fingertips slid up Cecil’s back, causing him to hum in delight.

This was cut short quickly when suddenly something gripped Cecil by the hair tightly and yanked him back and off the other. He yelped out loudly, scrambling a bit on the ground and looking up to meet eyes with one of Werner’s brothers. Aldhelm. The younger of the two, Markoff, was behind them a few feet, sort of staring in disbelief. 

“No, Aldhelm, what are you doing?” Werner stared at his brother through wide eyes, trembling a bit in shock.

“What am I doing? What are YOU doing?” Aldhelm shook his head in anger. “This… Thing has been here for all of a few hours and you’ve lost your mind!” 

“That is nonsense!” Werner shook his head fervently. “You are being ridiculous. Markoff,” Werner turned to look at his younger brother who was still staring at the scene with a mix of uncertainty and distaste. “Tell our brother he is being ridiculous!”

“I…” Markoff made a face, chewing on his lip and finally shaking his head. “He’s right, Werner. That guy should’ve never come here.’

Cecil had never been in a situation quite this bad. He had ran before, several times, but that was not an option here. He was on the ground, and there were two of them. “Look, I can just leave…” He finally offered up, slowly moving to try to stand up. He managed to get about halfway up, looking upwards towards Aldhelm just in time to feel his knuckles collide with Cecil’s nose. Cecil fell back again, hissing a bit and coming to the realization of just how bad this situation could really be.

“What is going on out here?” The eldest of the brothers came down the hill, having been keeping watch. “I thought you said you were going to deal with it.”

“We’re going to. Right now.” Aldhelm nodded. “This guy isn’t going to stick around.”

“I will leave,” Cecil insisted, keeping his eyes down on the ground. “Let me just go grab my stuff and I will leave right now and you will never see me again.” His heart was pounding in his chest, realizing just how much danger he could be in. These guys were probably going to beat the hell out of him, if he was being honest. The stream of hot blood from his nose had slowed, but he hadn’t dared move to wipe it away. 

“Damn straight you will,” Aldhelm said, gripping Cecil’s arm and beginning to drag him down the pier. Markoff was quick to hurry after to help, grabbing the struggling man as they hastily pulled him along.

Cecil could see Werner try to stand, but Ulrik move to restrain the other. Cecil almost heard the words ‘just let it play out’ whispered in German from one brother to the other and he felt nauseous.

“I don’t know how to swim!” He said loudly at the threat of being thrown into the water. It was a large lake, and something told Cecil that they weren’t going to let Werner come in after him if they could help it. “Hey, please! Don’t do this!” Cecil struggled in the grip, meeting Markoff’s unsure gaze. “I won’t make it out of there!”

“Aldhelm!” Werner yelled, Ulrik moving to put a hand over his mouth to muffle him. Ulrik didn’t want their father hearing from inside. 

“Werner, hush!” Ulrik hissed loudly, keeping his brother down on the ground. 

“Maybe you’ll be fine.” Markoff finally muttered under his breath, but did not meet Cecil’s eyes again.

“Or maybe not.” Aldhelm finally added, nodding to his brother as they began to swing Cecil. He struggled to the best of his ability, trying to bite or scratch or get free. But alas, the second they had enough momentum, they let go and he flew a few feet out and splashed down into the water. It was cold, and Cecil felt water burn the inside of his nostrils and the taste of salt in his mouth. He tried to cough, lungs protesting at the way he had stupidly gasped in a mouthful of water. His hands reached upwards, flailing each limb in a desperate attempt to reach the top. He couldn’t hear anything above the surface, water muffling each and every noise. Instinct told him to go up, and damn, was he trying. But it was like the water was pushing him the other way, like his panicked waving beneath the surface was doing the opposite of helping him. He couldn’t breathe, and his throat burned. It was dark, and disorienting, and Cecil could feel his whole body seem to tighten with the lack of air. His heart was thumping desperately in his chest as he tried to find some way out, but the surface seemed so very far. Cecil could feel his body begin to quit, his limbs becoming sluggish. His mind was screaming at him to do something, but he couldn’t make himself move. He couldn’t feel himself breathing because he wasn’t. There wasn’t any air left in him to breathe. The whole moment seemed so surreal and fighting, that Cecil was beginning to wish death could come faster. But it didn’t. Finally, an odd static flickered in front of his eyes, and suddenly it was like it had all started over again. He was holding his breath, limbs tired but able to sluggishly move. 

Cecil had never been so completely horrified in his entire life. It was like his time of dying was playing over and over again on a loop. He must have gone through this at least ten times, if not more. It felt like hours had gone by when he finally felt a foreign grip on him. The second his head resurfaced be coughed, his throat raw and tasting of copper as he desperately clung at the shoulders of whoever had grabbed him. At this point he didn’t care. They could beat him to death and it would be better than being in that lake any longer.

He gripped at the grass when Ulrik dumped on land, coughing water (and a bit of blood) out of his sore lungs and heaving a few times for good measure. He was shivering violently, but he was not cold.

“How is he still alive?” Ulrik’s voice asked quietly, sounding almost scared.

“You shouldn’t have pulled him out,” Aldhelm added.

“He wasn’t going to get out himself and… He hadn’t died yet.” Ulrik said, hand touching Cecil’s bare back. “Get up.”

“We’ll just make him leave,” Markoff offered. “Just let him leave. This was good enough Ald.”

“Cecil,” Werner’s voice was quiet amongst the others, full of fear and shock. His brothers weren’t going to hurt him, but he had never seen this side of them.

Cecil slowly pushed himself up onto his knees, coughing some more and shakily looking up at the group of men staring him down.

“Just leave,” Ulrik said quietly. “Just go.”

Cecil simply nodded, moving to shakily get up and leaning down to grab his shirt and once he was a few feet away he took off. He ran for as long as he could. His lungs burned and he only stopped when he was rather sure he was going to vomit. After a long couple minutes of dry heaving by the side of the road, he could hear footsteps behind him. He froze up, eyes wide as he turned to stare at a panting Werner. “Go away,” Cecil said shakily. “Just go home.”

“Let me come with you.” Werner insisted, taking a few steps closer. “I can’t be here anymore. And I like you. Please, let me come with you.”

“No.” Cecil said, moving to finally try to pull his shirt on. His fingers were shaking far too badly to button it. “Don’t you dare follow me.”

“You have to know that I did not want any of that to happen.” Werner insisted, eyes pleading. “Please, Cecil.”

“Look okay,” Cecil said, looking to Werner and shaking his head. “Don’t follow me. I am going to leave on my own and you can do whatever you want that does not involve me. I am not here to find love, Werner. I ran away from my old life without looking back because there were things that I have not dealt with, and for a long while this place seemed so ideal but honestly? I need to go home. I need to just… Not be here. You’re looking for someone to run away with and I am so sick of running away.” Cecil’s voice shook as he spoke, shaking his head and turning to start back into town. “I’m grabbing my stuff and you are never going to see me again. And you are going to get over it because I’m going to forget about you the second I am gone.” 

“You can’t do that.” Werner insisted as they entered the shop and he followed Cecil upstairs. “You can’t just show up here and give me a glimpse into this… Into this life that is everything I could ever want and just… Take it away. You can’t.”

“God, would you be quiet?” Cecil pleaded as he shoved all of his things into his bag and pulled it back over his shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about paying me. I don’t care.”

“Cecil,” Werner’s voice had gone from angry to pleading now, and he gripped Cecil’s shoulder as the other tried to slip past him. “Please, talk to me.”

Cecil paused, glancing up at him and swallowing thickly. “Okay. Let me talk. You want me to justify myself and be ready to just accept you after your brothers just tried to kill me. You’re inconsiderate and the fact that you have the nerve to beg me to let you tag along is revolting. I do not exist to make your life better, Werner.” Cecil was quick to head down the narrow stairway. Part of him knew he was being harsh, but he couldn’t care. He wanted to be gone. He wanted to be so far away from this nightmare. And so that’s what he did. He got out the door and he booked it and he ran until his legs gave out. 

He collapsed into the middle of a dirt street with fields on either side, rolling over onto his back and trying to choke down his sobs. He curled his arm over his face, crying into the inner crease of his elbow and coughing between shaky gasps. His throat felt raw, and his face hot, and his eyes stung. Every muscle in his body hurt and he felt sick to his stomach. 

With the last of his energy he peered up from his spot, and let out a loud sigh of relief when he was sure that Werner had not followed him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~hahah get fuckin REKT nerds~~  
>     
> next chapter well be back to the actual story, woo!


	8. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another scientist is recruited for the efforts of trying to figure out the static. There's also a slightly awkward dinner party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings for this chapter:  
> -non graphic violence  
> -theres a puppy!!! (this isn't a warning I'm just excited about the pup)  
> -it does talk about something that happened in episode 83 - One Normal Town. so if you aren't caught up then idk what to tell you bud. sorry. read at your own risk of spoilers.

The puppy in Cecil’s lap had melted against his thighs, tail flicking back and forth lazily. _Bill Nye The Science Guy_ had been playing on the television for about two hours now, and Carlos was thoroughly invested in Bill’s song about liquid nitrogen. Cecil perked up in the cushions, setting himself up straight and thus disrupting Carlos’ and his current snuggling situation. Carlos glanced up at the other curiously, and Cecil took a deep breath. “I want you to help me with this.”

“With… The dog?” Carlos had no idea where Cecil was going with this, and Tesla was the only thing in the vicinity. 

“No,” Cecil said, shaking his head and moving to gently put the puppy in Carlos’ lap. “With… The whole Simone thing. That’s what I want help with.”

Carlos made a face, eyes moving to look at the pup. “Cecil…”

“Look,” Cecil started, moving to gently touch Carlos’ chin and tilt his head upwards so they could lock eyes. “I get that you don’t think you can help her and… And maybe you don’t think I can either. But… I need to try. And it would mean a lot of me if you could help me as well. I’m… Bad at keeping my head when it comes to things like this and I just… I need someone there for me. Simone and Earl are great but… Neither of them get me the way you get me, Carlos.” 

Carlos paused at this, seeming to take the words in and lull them over for a moment. He sighed softly, moving to rest their cheeks together. Cecil closed his eyes, just preparing himself for whatever it was that Carlos was going to say next.

“I… I don’t know what to think about this entire situation if I am being completely honest.” Carlos mused aloud, a hand sliding up Cecil’s spine delicately. “But… If it means a lot to you then I will try to help in any way I can. I just… Ceec, sweetie, I just worry y’know. I don’t want you to get too caught up in all of this only to find out there isn’t anything we can do.”

“There has to be something we can do.” Cecil said, shaking his head. “Gosh, I feel like you don’t know the half of it. There’s so much more to this than just… Helping Simone understand her realities.” 

Carlos’ brows furrowed deeply, pulling back to look at Cecil’s face again. “Well… What else is there?”

“There’s… A lot of stuff with Earl. And Kevin. And then there’s…” Cecil chewed his lip over gently, sighing and looking back down at Tesla who was fast asleep at this point. Finally his eyes made their way back up to meet with Carlos’. “I guess I should probably tell you about the static.”

_____________________________________________________________

The expanse of the desert never ceased to amaze Simone. Something about the way the sand went on and on for miles on end made her feel so small. Made her problems seem so insignificant. The line of thinking broke at sound of rustling a few feet away from her. She glanced up to watch a stray coyote approaching her slowly. It bared it’s teeth, growling a bit and Simone shooed at it. “Go,” she said, waving her hand at it and it just growled louder. “Get.” She told it, and it still didn’t listen. 

When the animal slowly started circling her, Simone made an executive decision that could probably save her from being attacked by this wild coyote. That decision was to yell for Earl. They weren’t far from Josie’s house, and someone was bound to hear her. 

The loud noise seemed to startle the pup, who lunged and Simone put up her arm out of instinct. She felt teeth tear at the flesh and she gave it a hard kick and scrambled to her feet. The animal yelped but Simone didn’t look back at it as she scattered a couple feet away to get some space between her and the animal. “Earl!” She yelled again, watching the wild dog as she backed away slowly.

“What?” Earl finally called back, heading out of Josie’s place and pausing to look at the dog. He carefully removed the machete attached to his belt and approached the two. “Shoo,” he told it, and it seemed a bit more wary. Earl was tall, and posed more of a threat.

“Are you going to kill it?” Simone inquired, watching from behind Earl now. She glanced back to see a couple of younger residents peering from behind the chainlink fence of Josie’s front yard. 

“No,” Earl said, taking a quick step forward to startle the coyote away. Finally it took off in the other direction, and he sighed and tucked his knife away and took Simone’s arm to look at it. “There’s so few of them as it is. We need them to keep reproducing or we’re going to run out of food.” He made a face at the bleeding mark, before ushering Simone inside. He sat her down and patched up her arm carefully. “Does this stay?”

“Huh?: Simone inquired, brows raising a bit.

“I mean, when you switch realities, will you have this bite mark on your arm? I mean, probably not. Sorry. That was a stupid question.” Earl chuckled a bit, shaking his head, and Simone took a moment to admire how different the two were. This Earl was still nineteen, with sloppy orange locks and sunburnt skin and a stubbly face. He was still tall, but thinner in the arms and shoulders, but some aspect of him still looked so old. She had to muse that he had been alive and stuck in time for a few centuries. She wondered silently what he looked like when he was young and fresh faced. “Simone?” Earl’s voice prompted her again softly.

“Oh, sorry, I got distracted.” Simone reached up to rub her eyes, before shaking her head. “No. My arm will not have the bite on it in the other reality. Luckily injuries and things like illnesses do not exchange through realities.”

Earl simply nodded, redirecting his gaze to the ground and taking a deep breath.

“How’s Cecil doing? I know the other day really shook him up.” Simone made a face, thinking of everything Steve had said. They had been separated from Night Vale law for so long, but some people were just unable to break free of their old habits.

“He’s… Weird.” Earl shrugged, sighing and glancing up, thumbs twiddling. “He doesn’t know how to handle any of this. And I mean, I can’t blame him. It’s all pretty overwhelming but I guess I’ve just… I don’t know… He’s so stuck in the way things are supposed to be that he doesn’t really realize that things don’t have to be that way anymore. I don’t know I just… I worry about him.”

“I do too.” Simone sighed softly, reaching up to ruffle the other’s hair. “This whole… Thing. Part of me wants to call it an experiment but I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate anymore. This whole… Situation, is going to be hard on him. Both of him. I feel like… He wants to help but he thinks he’s only helping me. I think part of him is in denial that he plays a bigger role in this. If I told your Cecil that, he might believe me, but the other one… He might just shut me out.”

Earl sighed, nodding a bit and sort of sinking in his seat. “I wish there was some way I could speak to him. The other Cecil, I mean. Like… Directly. Having a conversation through you would be too impersonal but I know Cecil and… Maybe I could do something.”

“Maybe there’s a way…” Simone huffed, resting her chin on her hand. “But it would probably involve some really weird dimension travel or bloodstone magic. Both of which are dangerous.”

Earl nodded his head at that, lulling it over. Finally he tilted his head, speaking softly. “The other Cecil and I… I know you’ve never said it but… It’s sort of implied that we were never together, huh?”

Simone shook her head, meeting Earl’s sad eyes. She wondered how one person managed to look so exhausted all of the time. “No. As far as I’ve gathered you’ve only recently came back into Cecil’s life and he’s happily taken.”

“And the guy he’s with… Carlos. He’s um.... He’s good to Cecil, right? Cecil’s happy?”

Simone tried to fight off a bit of a smile. Earl seemed so genuinely concerned with Cecil’s happiness that it made her feel a little fuzzy inside. “Yeah. Carlos is a scientist, like me. A little forgetful from what I can tell but… I think Cecil’s very happy.”

Earl nodded, flashing a small smile for a moment and nodding. “I’m glad.”

“So am I…” Simone added, brushing her hair back for a moment and pausing at a noise she was hearing on the other end. “One second.” She said, flipping realities to the one in her right field of vision. She picked up her cell phone and opened it, peering at the text she had been sent by Cecil. It was a group message, and she could see it was sent to Earl as well.

[You should come to dinner at my place tonight. At 6:30. Earl, Abby can watch Roger. I already asked. I told Carlos everything.]

Simone was curious as to how it went over, but decided she would learn that tonight. It couldn’t have gone too bad considering Carlos was willing to have them to dinner. Or maybe they’d be convincing Carlos that this was a good idea. Who knows?

[I’ll be there]

Simone sent that quickly before flipping back over to her other reality, sighing loudly at Earl. “Well, I won’t be here for dinner tonight I guess.” 

“Oh?” Earl arched his brows. “Plans?”

“Yeah. I’m having dinner with you, Cecil, and Carlos. Probably Kevin too if we put him on the phone.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just bring that guy to Night Vale?” Earl inquired, tilting his head. “I mean, he’s already a part of this.”

“Well…” Simone chewed her lip over. “It would make sense but… It also has the potential to be awful. But… I don’t know. Things are different now than they were back then. I think Kevin is different.”

“There’s no harm is asking.” Earl gave a shrug, and Simone nodded. Then that’s what she would do. Ask. 

“I just…” Simone chewed her lip, shrugging. “Wait a second,” she paused for a moment, glancing up at Earl. “Desert Bluffs exists in this reality.”

“Well, yeah.” Earl nodded, quirking his brow. Simone was seeming to have an epiphany that he was totally ignorant to.

“That means that this universe, this reality, would have it’s own Kevin.” Simone stood up, feeling stupid for not realizing this sooner. “Desert Bluffs isn’t that far from here. I mean, it’s the closest town and I know we heard they got hit with the nuke there as well but… Kevin could’ve survived. There might be a version of him there that has been here the whole time. How did I not realize this sooner? I have been so absorbed in everything else I just… We have to go to Desert Bluffs! That’s exactly what we have to do!” 

“Simone…” Earl said, making a face. “Remember? We sent a group to Desert Bluffs and it was…. It was awful. It was more than just the bomb that went off Simone… There was… Blood everywhere. The place was, frankly, a fucking nightmare.”

Simone made a face at that, just taking a deep breath. “That makes sense given Desert Bluffs’ history but… We have to try. I need to see what his experiences have been like. I need… Augh, I don’t know Earl. We are all a part of this and this is a Kevin I would actually have access to and... “

“And you’re a scientist who needs answers.” Earl finished her sentence for her, sighing and rubbing his eyes a bit. “Okay, say we do do this. Say that, you, Cecil, and I go to Desert Bluffs. I think some of the group wanted to believe all the gore they saw was caused by librarians but… I talked to Alen who went with the group and he said that… Librarians really really give their victims hell. They’re nearly unrecognizable afterwards but this… It wasn’t as vicious or wild as librarians. Alen… Thought that people had done it, Simone. He thought Desert Bluffs essentially wiped itself out by murdering each other.”

Simone was silent at that, making a face of concern and settling back down in her seat. “I mean… I always heard their whole… Smiling God religion was… Violent, to say the least but…” She shook her head, not wanting it to be true. “We just… Should scope out the area. That’s it. If it’s too dangerous we get out of there. I mean, it’s not like you or Cecil can die or anything. And I’ll play it safe.”

Earl watched her closely, taking a deep breath and glancing around the mostly empty room. The checkerboard patterned angel was in the corner, buzzing quietly. They had a book in their hand, a biography of Helen Hunt. Earl stared at them for a moment before turning his attention back to Simone. “I wonder if Steve knows anything about it.”

Simone paused at that, lulling the possibility over. “Well…. As you said earlier, there’s no harm in asking.”

“I should check on Cecil first, though.” Earl moved to stand, taking a deep breath and heading for the back door. “He’s barely left bed the last few days.”

Simone frowned a bit at that, but agreed and the two of them headed outside to check the tent Cecil and Earl often stayed in. “Ceecee, hey,” Earl spoke quietly at he opened the tent. Cecil laid inside, arms around a pillow, just staring off at the wall of the tent. He frowned, crawling in behind the other and settling down to spoon him. “Simone came to see you.”

“Hey,” Simone said, frown deepening. She took a deep breath, debating for a long moment, before crawling in as well so she was face to face with Cecil. “I take it you aren’t handling all of this well.”

“It’s just a lot is all,” Cecil said quietly, avoiding eye contact. He settled down in his sleeping bag, shrugging his shoulders and making himself look quite small. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Earl asked quietly, reaching up a hand to gently pull the hair tie out of Cecil’s hair so he would pet it. 

“I just…” Cecil tooth a deep breath, obviously overwhelmed and unsure of where to start.

“Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.” Simone encouraged, reaching into the bag to find one of Cecil’s hands and squeezing it gently. 

“Steve brought up Abby.” Cecil blurted it out after a moment, and his eyes instantly got a little misty. “And we saw those pictures a few weeks back and… I barely remembered her face and now I can’t stop thinking about her and… We’ve always been in or out, the two of us. And when everything happened we were out and she was mad at me and… God, in the other reality she gets to have a kid and get married and I still hate her husband and won’t talk to her and… God, fuck, I wish I could just go to the other reality and grab myself by the shoulders and shake him and tell him to just, get over himself and talk to his damn sister.” His voice cracked at the last sentence, just devolving into a mess of tears. Earl’s arms tightened around him, and Simone squeezed his hand. 

“And then, all of that shit with Steve was so confusing. How does he just know everything! And then he knows all of this information we’re not supposed to know and… It’s all so entirely screwed. Everything our town stood for, all of our laws, everything that mattered just. It just doesn’t anymore.” Cecil was a blurry eyed mess, his voice getting higher as he talked and cracking often. 

“Shhhh,” Earl hushed him quietly, very gently moving to roll Cecil over so the other could bury his face in Earl’s neck. He draped an arm around him, and ran the other one through his hair. Simone simply placed her fingers on Cecil’s back, rubbing soothing circles. This continued for a little while until Simone felt something and made a face.

“One moment,” she spoke softly, switching realities to check her buzzing phone. She answered the call without bothering to check who it was; she was in a hurry to get this over with. “Hello?”

“Simone!” Kevin’s voice sounded bright and Simone could tell he was smiling. “I was just telling my intern Vanessa about you and I thought I’d give you a call! Just checking up to see how you’re doing. I am feeling rather jolly at the moment, if I do say so myself. I took the time to make lots of notes about every time I can remember seeing the static and I have it all in this composition notebook right here.”

“That’s great, Kevin.” Simone nodded, reaching up to brush her hair back out of her face. “But um, can I call you back shortly? I was in the middle of something.”

“Oh…” Kevin sounded disappointed for a moment. “Well… Alright!” He perked up again, 

and Simone could almost hear his enthusiastic nodding. “Any clue how long you’ll be?”

“Not sure.” Simone admitted, sighing. “I have some things I need to do today but… I’m having dinner with Earl and Cecil and Carlos this evening so maybe I can put you on speaker and we can all talk.”

“Oh, Carlos is going to be there as well?” Kevin sounded… Weird. Simone didn’t know what emotion his voice was trying to convey. 

“Yes, he is. You know Carlos, correct? You met him out there in the desert oth--- Bluffs. Desert Bluffs.” Simone corrected herself, knowing that if she hadn’t Kevin would’ve done it for her. 

“Yes, yes. I just… Haven’t talked to him in a while. A long while.” Simone could almost hear the sound of paper crinkling over the line.

“Alright well… I’ll talk to you this evening Kevin, I promise.” 

“Okay Simone,” Kevin finally hung up the phone and Simone set her’s down. She quickly switched back to the other reality, where Cecil had calmed down quite a bit and was just breathing shallowly against Earl’s skin.

Simone sighed softly and rested her cheek against his back. “How are you feeling?” She spoke against the fabric of his dirty shirt quietly. 

“Better,” Cecil replied, his voice muffled. Earl gave Simone a little thumbs up as well, to corroborate Cecil’s reply. 

“So… Should we…?” Simone glanced to Earl, unsure if unpacking their idea on Cecil in his current state was the best plan. 

“What?” Cecil inquired, looking back at Simone through red eyes and sniffling a bit. “That ‘should we’ sounded really suggestive I hope you know.”

“I was not implying anything sexual, Cecil.” Simone made a face, pinching the other and getting a laugh out of him. “You are ridiculous.”

“Okay, okay, fine. But what were you talking about?” Cecil wiped his eyes, glancing between the two curiously.

“Well…” Simone started, taking a deep breath. “You might not like the idea.” 

“There’s no harm in asking,” Cecil pointed out, and Earl just nodded to Simone like ‘I told you so.’

________________________________________________________

Roger had gone back to school this week, but Earl still had some time off. He hadn’t finished the painkillers the doctor had prescribed, and his headaches hadn’t stopped entirely yet. So he had been spending a lot of time at home, occasionally going swimming or just doing puzzles in his dining room. It had been a pretty uneventful week besides Simone’s odd text messages. Earl still didn’t know how to feel about her all in all, but maybe today would help. 

“Thanks so much again Abby,” Earl sighed, tilting his head at Cecil’s older sister. She was close in height to the other, with hair that barely dusted her shoulders and similar facial markings. 

“It’s no problem at all.” Abby said, shaking her head. “Janice always loves having Roger over.” 

Earl nodded at that, looking down at his son and offering a small smile. He held his hand up, signing his words. ‘I love you. I will be back for you later.’

Roger glanced up at his father, signing back a very quick ‘okay’ before turning to hurry inside. Earl tried to not let this hurt his feelings. Earl failed at not letting this hurt his feelings. 

“I should um, go ahead and leave.” Earl said, finally just nodding and looking to Abby. “Thanks again.”

“Give Gershwin a noogie for me?” Abby nudged at Earl, trying to elicit a grin. “At least mess up his hair and tell him it was from me? C’mon Earl, gimme something.”

“Maybe,” Earl said, smiling moreso to be polite and less out of actual humor. Finally he said goodbye to Abby and returned to his rental car. He checked that everything was in place, fiddling with the mirror for a long moment before pulling out of the driveway and heading over to Cecil’s house. 

About halfway there he had to pull over the car, because well, he couldn’t remember what he had been doing. Where was he going? Who’s car was this? Was it his? Earl’s memory was generally frustrating, and this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. His memory had cut out on him countless times before this moment, and each time was just as jarring and annoying. He knew the memories would come back. Sometimes it took minutes, and sometimes days, but they usually came back.

He looked around the car, noticing the notebook in the passenger seat. He wrote things down a lot. Cecil had instilled this need to do so when they were young, and Earl’s notetaking was good for his memory problems. He picked up the notebook, opening it to the latest page of notes.

_September 13th, 2016_

_-You have a son named Roger. He is around nine and Abby Palmer and Steve Carlsberg are watching him for the day. The numbers are in your phone._

Earl had to pause for a moment, nodding to himself. Okay, Roger. He couldn’t remember what Roger looked like for a long moment, but after focusing for a second he could imagine a bit of a face. Roger. Son. Probably have to pick him up later. Okay.

_-You fed the cat before you left. Her name is Biddy. She likes to sleep under the bed covers._

Earl paused, trying to remember when he got a cat. He could not make himself remember. But he was sure the cat was cute. All cats were cute.

_-You are in a rental car. You totaled yours. You can reread old entries to find out how._

_-You are going to Cecil’s for dinner at 6. Carlos, Cecil’s boyfriend, is going to be there. Along with Simone Rigadeau. Check previous entries for info about her._

_-Cecil’s address is 309 Sandstone Dr., Old Town. Apartment 212._

Earl read all of this over, just taking deep breaths and nodding his head. Alright. He could manage this. He took a moment to scan over the previous pages for information on Simone, and details from his own memory sort of began to creep into his brain the more he read. Okay. He was fine.

Finally he set the book aside, and glanced at the clock. It said 9:27AM. Earl wondered why clocks existed at all. How do you measure something that isn’t real? He huffed, pulling back onto the road and making his way to Old Town, Night Vale. Earl liked Old Town. It was a little greener than the rest of the town, and all of the buildings were made of stone. It took him a few minutes to find Sandstone Drive, but Cecil’s building was easy enough to locate. He parked in the small lot next to the building and got out. He gave his phone a glance on the way into the building, surprised with the cat as his lockscreen background. Biddy was super cute.

He sighed, heading up to the second floor and looking for the door labelled 212. Finally he gave a knock on the door, and after a moment Cecil opened the door. He smiled a bit, before making a face. Earl understood.

“Didn’t take it well?” Earl asked quietly as he was ushered in.

“He’s so worried.” Cecil whispered back, patting Earl’s arm. “Carlos! Earl’s here!” He called out, pulling Earl by his arm into the kitchen where Carlos was cooking. “Now we’re just waiting for Simone.”

Carlos turned and gave Earl a little wave before going back to flipping around a stir fry in the skillet he was using. “Dinner shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“I don’t mind waiting,” Earl said, and Cecil moved them back into the living room and sat down.

“Do you want anything? Water? A beer?” Cecil asked, and Earl replied that he was fine. Cecil huffed, reaching up to brush his hair back out of his face. Earl silently wished he wore it down more often. It was so pretty. “So… Gosh, where to even start? I um. Tried to tell Carlos about the static and… I think he believes me but he’s just… I guess he’s just really worried about me. He’s been upset most of the day.”

Earl nodded at that, going to speak but jumping a little at the presence of a cold nose on his bare leg. He glanced down to find a small dog inspecting him, moving to even stand on his foot while he sniffed around Earl. “Oh, I always forget you have a dog.”

“How can you forget Tesla?” Cecil pouted, reaching over to pat Earl’s knee. The dog took this as an invitation, not hesitating to jump on up into Earl’s lap. Earl paused, placing a large hand on the small dog. 

Earl did not want to admit that he had forgotten his cat merely thirty minutes ago, so he changed the subject while he pet the tiny canine. “So any clue if Carlos is willing to help us? I mean, I’m not sure what he could actually do but… He has a lab and stuff, so… Science can probably help, right?”

“Science can always help, Earl.” Cecil nodded, reaching over to stroke a floppy ear gently. Tesla’s little tail was wagging happily as he sat on Earl’s knee. “I’m just not quite sure how yet. I think it’s just a lot for Carlos to take in and… I don’t know. I wanted you and Simone to recap with him as well. My brain is so scattered. Could swear the Faceless Old Woman is sticking a whisk in my ear in my sleep and scrambling my brain.” He huffed, and a picture suddenly fell off the wall and crashed onto the ground. Cecil jumped, glancing over and making a face. “Sorry, that was rude of me to say.”

It was a few more minutes before Simone knocked at the door and Cecil let her inside. She looked as if she had tried to clean up at least a bit, despite her hair still being a frizzy mess. She gave Earl and Cecil a small smile, nodding her head. Then she looked to Cecil specifically. “How did Carlos take it?”

Cecil was about to reply when Carlos exited the kitchen through the hanging doorbeads and into the living room. “Dinner’s ready.” He informed everyone, so they all relocated to the small dining table in the corner of the kitchen. Drinks were passed around and everyone settled down to begin their meal. And it was awkwardly silent. 

Cecil decided to try and break the silence, glancing about the table. “An indian, two scientists, and a redhead walk into a bar…” This earned a bit of a chuckle from Simone, and questioning glance from Earl.

“Is this a joke where we address that both the natives and redheads are essentially going extinct?” Earl inquired, and Cecil choked a bit on the sip of water he was taking. 

“Way to be a Debbie Downer, Earl.” Cecil laughed, giving the other a shove. “I was just trying to break the silence.”

“I guess we should get down to serious business,” Carlos interjected, making a face and not seeming to know where to start. “Just. Run all of the details by me.”

“Wait,” Simone said, producing her phone from her pocket. “I told Kevin we’d include him in this conversation.”

“O-oh,” Carlos replied, not quite sure what to do with this situation. Simone arched a brow, glancing up at him and inquiring if something is wrong. “Oh no, no. Kevin is great! A really swell guy, even. I just… Haven’t talked to him in a long while. And… I don’t think our last interaction was on… The best terms. I just mean…”

“Do you guys have history or something?” Simone was blunt, finger waiting against the call button as she waited for this rambling to end.

Cecil eyes went a little wide at this question, shaking his head. “No, no they do not, Simone. Goodness, what would make you think that??”

“Just a guess,” Simone said, only half lying. The way Kevin spoke about Carlos and Carlos’ awkward reaction led her to seemingly understand exactly what had gone down. Finally she just hit the call button, putting her phone on speaker and setting it down on the table.

“Simone, hi!!” Kevin’s voice rang through the phone, sounding joyful that she had remembered to call him.

“Hello Kevin,” Simone replied. “I am here with Cecil, Earl, and Carlos.” 

“Hi Kevin,” Earl added, and Cecil added a similar greeting.

“Oh hi Cecil, Earl, erm… Hi Carlos.” Kevin finally added after a moment. “Erm, how have you been doing?”

“Oh, I’ve been good.” Carlos replied, twiddling his fork in circles. “Um, what about you? And the desert? And Doug and Alicia?”

“Oh, I’ve been good! Working mostly. And things are all good here. Sunny, mostly. Always so sunny. And Doug, he’s been good. Alicia has been as well. Their dog doesn’t seem to like me much.”

“I do not mean to be rude,” Simone huffed, reaching up to brush a stray curl behind her ear. “But can you two catch up later? We have a lot to discuss.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kevin agreed almost immediately. “We have a lot to get done.”

Simone agreed with this, and moved to grab her bag and retrieve her notebook. Cecil did the same, and after a moment Earl did as well.

“I guess I should take notes?” Carlos inquired, moving to stand and go retrieve his own book. He came back, settling back down and opening to a clean page. 

“So this all started when Earl was in his accident last week.” Simone began, flipping through all of her pages. As I was driving towards where the accident was going to happen, my vision kept flickering static. I don’t remember much of the initial accident, but the static means that something did change.”

“I could see the static as well,” Kevin added.

“He called me the night of the accident, as did Simone.” Cecil found the specific page where all of this was written down. “You and Roger were asleep.”

“Earl has never seen the static, but he seems to have some weird time things going on.” Simone glanced over at the chef, tilting her head and sighing. “I believe he initially died in the accident, and then time changed to correct that mistake. But the static doesn’t happen every time Earl dies. See, Earl in my dimension has died several times. But he just.. Un-dies? Say, hypothetically, he was shot. He would bleed and die. His pulse would be gone. He wouldn’t be breathing. But then, suddenly the wound is gone even if the blood is still there, and he’s alive again. Like his body reset.”

Carlos watched Simone, looking incredulous and glancing to Earl for a moment before moving to write a lot of this down. He would need to review these notes several times later.

“The first time I saw the static was back in 1983 when my realities split. We were nuclear bombed, just like Nulogorsk.”

“I don’t know if I experienced the static.” Cecil admitted, shrugging. “I don’t always remember if I have or haven’t.”

“I may have?” Kevin offered up, sighing. “The 80s are a blur.”

Cecil snorted at that, nodding. “God, so much Bret Michaels and cocaine. What an era. An awful era. I would not do that again.”

Simone was quick to try and steer the conversation away from 80s music and drugs. The last thing she needed was more distractions. She sighed, placing her chin in her hand and continuing to go over each time she had seen the static. In 83. Later that year when Earl had died, and a few more times after that.

“Wait,” Kevin interjected as Simone kept talking. “So. Every time it happened Cecil was there with you?”

Simone paused, thinking that over. “Yes. He never remembers after it happens that it even happened, and I’ve never gotten the chance to ask in the moment, but I am relatively sure he sees it as well…” She pursed her lips, before pausing. “Well… Actually no, there was one time I saw it and I wasn’t with Cecil. But he remembers seeing it that time. He said he was in the middle of run and he has gotten separated from the rest of his group. He had been wandering a little closer into town than we usually did and he felt fine so he kept going. He had wandered into some building and it… Almost collapsed on him. It did collapse on him. But then it didn’t.” Simone huffed, moving to place her face in her hands. “Time is rewriting itself and I have no idea why. And why _us_.”

“So…” Cecil said after a moment, taking a deep breath. “We are still at square one? Just… Knowing this is happening but not really any closer as to how or why?”

“There’s one theory,” Simone started, brushing her fingers through her messy curls. “The Steve from my time, as absurd as it sounds, thinks that maybe the first time I saw the static was a mistake. Just… There was a rift in time and I somehow accidentally got caught up in it and I haven’t been able to break free ever since. And yeah, that could be true. Honestly that makes more sense than anything else I can come up with. But it just. Doesn’t explain why any of you experience it. Or whatever the hell is happening with Earl.”

“I feel like my ordeal may be entirely separate.” Earl admitted after a moment, swishing around a half empty bottle of beer he had been slowly sipping on. “I… Have memory problems and age problems and somehow I can’t seem to die but… I don’t know if I actually have anything to do with the static.”

Cecil sighed, fiddling with his hair for a moment before just huffing. “Okay. But there’s something else I want to know that’s been bothering me. Kevin, when you originally called me you knew who Earl was! And we still have no idea how, considering you’ve never met him.”

“You know who I am?” Earl glanced to the phone, brows knitting together.

“I…” Kevin paused, trying to find his words. “ _Maybe_?” He sighed, and creaking could be heard like he was shuffling himself around. “I can picture you in my head but… You’re younger. And you have an accent? And you are dressed in super old clothes and it just makes no sense! I don’t know why I have memories of you when I have no idea who you are.”

“Maybe… We somehow met? Way back when Cecil and I were teens? My family hailed over from Ireland and my voice hadn’t really Americanized yet… And it was a pretty long time ago. I mean… I’m not entirely sure when but… It was long ago. We’re… Both a couple hundred years old. At least.”

Cecil made a face, rubbing his temples. “I hate time. It’s so confusing. And it’s so easy to just… Forget things. I feel like I’ve forgotten so much of my own life.”

“I understand that feeling.” Earl added quietly.

“As do I,” Kevin chimed in, and for a moment the entire table was silent.

“I have… A bit of a plan.” Simone finally interrupted the silence. “I don’t know how much it’ll help but… I’m willing to give it a shot.”

“Oh?” Cecil glanced up, looking a little sad. “What is it?”

“Well we’ve tried to leave Night Vale and it doesn’t work but… We haven’t really ever tried exploring the nearby towns all that much. Well, besides Pine Cliff. The whole place was burnt down.Just… An awful forest fire that destroyed everything. We explored it a little but… We didn’t find anyone. But… We could try… To well, go to Desert Bluffs. It got blasted as well but… Maybe I could find the Kevin from my other reality and we could get his experiences as well.”

“Is… That a good idea?” Cecil asked quietly, brows furrowing. “I mean… I have no idea at this point. I don’t know what Desert Bluffs would be like there. I don’t know what that Kevin would be like. I certainly hope he’s not like… Well, how you used to be, Kevin.”

Kevin opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t. Nobody could see this, and Kevin was momentarily thankful. He feels like the new him is a downgrade in a lot of ways compared to how he used to be. He used to be productive.

“I think we’ll be fine. I want to take my Cecil and Earl with me and we’re just. Going to explore what’s left of the town and look around. If Kevin is half as immortal as Cecil then he is definitely still living over there somewhere.”

“I probably will be there,” Kevin finally offered up, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “This seems like a erm… Silly question but. How is the Desert Bluffs in your dimension going?”

“Um,” Cecil glanced around, and everyone made a face. Nobody had told Kevin. “Well… After the whole collapse of Strex the town was sort of left in… A really bad state. And well… It… combined with Night Vale back in March. A lot of the families moved here and it’s… Been going well.”

“Oh.” Kevin said, sounding surprised. And then he was silent for a long moment. “So… My Desert Bluffs is… The _only_ Desert Bluffs?”

Cecil hesitated before answering. “Yeah, Kevin. Yeah.”

“So… If I ever came home I wouldn’t have anything to come home to.”

Everyone was silent.

The phone clicked. Simone reached over to check, and frowned at the confirmation. Kevin had hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there were no coyotes harmed in the writing of this chapter
> 
> as for kevins, well, that's a different story. poor kiddo.


End file.
